About 400,000 Palestinians have fled Gaza City as the Israeli army’s ground invasion entered its second day. 

Israel’s assessment comes as it opened a new temporary transportation route toward southern Gaza from Gaza City. 

The Rashid coastal road to Al Mawasi humanitarian zone from Gaza City has been packed with Palestinians fleeing for the past couple of days, causing huge traffic jams. 

While Hamas has ordered Palestinians to stay at Gaza City, the IDF has warned residents for weeks to move southward ahead of the invasion. Some 600,000 civilians are still estimated to be in the city. 

The IDF said it struck a weapons production facility belonging to Hamas in Gaza City and that “terrorists were present at the site” during the attack, working on “manufacturing explosives that were intended to target IDF troops in the area.” 

“As a result, secondary explosions were identified, indicating the presence of weapons in the facility. Additionally, over the past two days, the air force and artillery corps troops struck over 150 terror targets throughout Gaza City in support of the maneuvering troops in the area,” it added. 

The IDF chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, gave a televised speech on Monday, saying that thousands of reservists had been called up for the campaign at Gaza City and are operating alongside the regular troops. 

“As the IDF’s commander, it is my duty to present prior to every operation all possible security implications. All the risks and opportunities were presented to the political echelon clearly and professionally,” Mr. Zamir said, in what appeared to be a jab at the Israeli government. 

Mr. Zamir has warned repeatedly about the risks that an operation at Gaza City poses to the lives of the hostages as well as the thousands of soldiers about to engage in direct combat with Hamas. 

The IDF said that its Intelligence Directorate identified hundreds of new targets at Gaza City over the past month, in addition to the “observation, sniping, and anti-tank posts that were struck in the recent strikes on high-rise structures.” 

The army also estimated that more than 2,250 members of terror groups have been killed since March.

The invasion of Gaza City continued to cause uproar in Israel, with students from 75 schools demonstrating on Wednesday morning, demanding an end to the war. 

At Tel Aviv, demonstrators placed a message on the beach in front of the American embassy: “War kills hostages.” 

Demonstrators also protested outside Jerusalem, near the home of the strategic affairs minister, Ron Dermer. Mr. Dermer is a key confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and seen as the leader of the cease-fire negotiations team. 

The uncle, Zamir Haimi, of Tal Haimi, whose body is held by Hamas in Gaza, said he came to help Mr. Dermer “wake up this morning — not just from last night, but from the entire period you have been responsible for the negotiations to return the hostages.”

“You were appointed by the Prime Minister to bring hostages home, and so far, the results are zero. So if this is all you can do, just say you’re not doing it and pass it on to someone who knows how to do it better,” he added. 

Mr. Netanyahu, meanwhile, warned Hamas that if the terror group harms “a hair on the head of even one hostage, we will hunt them down with greater force until the end of their lives — and that end will come much faster than they think.”

“And this is what I say to Hamas’s leaders. You will have no shelter anyway. But our effort to reach you will be redoubled sevenfold, and we will reach you much faster than you think,” he added.