2023-10-13 08:04:56
The Israeli military has issued widespread evacuation orders for nearly half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people ahead of an expected ground offensive on the Strip, UN spokesmen said. The order has spread panic among civilians and aid workers, who were already fighting against Israeli bombing and the blockade.
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The Israeli military sent an evacuation order directly Friday morning, warning the hundreds of thousands of civilians in Gaza City to flee further south toward the Gaza Strip, a narrow coastal territory. Israel accused Hamas militants of hiding in tunnels beneath the city.
“This evacuation is for your own safety,” the Israeli army said in a warning it said was sent to civilians in Gaza City.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary general, told several media outlets that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had informed UN officials working in Gaza “that the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza was to move to southern Gaza in the next 24 hours,” adding that it involved approximately 1.1 million people.
Dujarric said the same order applied to all UN staff and people sheltered in its facilities, including schools, health centers and clinics. The UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNHCR) hosts more than 60% of the 423,000 people displaced in recent days in the Gaza Strip.
It was unclear how many people were now specifically north of Wadi Gaza.
“The United Nations considers it impossible for a displacement of this type to occur without devastating humanitarian consequences,” Dujarric declared. “The UN strongly calls for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded, avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation.”
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, stated: “The UN response to Israel’s alert to Gaza residents is shameful.” Erdan stated that the UN should focus on condemning Hamas and supporting Israel’s right to self-defense.
Salama Marouf, head of the Hamas government’s media office, declared that the transfer warning was an attempt by Israel to “broadcast and pass false propaganda, with the aim of sowing confusion among citizens and damaging internal cohesion.” ”.
The warning came after the Iranian foreign minister claimed that continuing war crimes against Palestinians would provoke a response from the “rest of the axis” as Israel continued to bomb Gaza. Hossein Amir-Abdollahian did not give further details, but when he talks about the resistance axis he is referring to an alliance between Iran, Palestinian groups, Syria, Hezbollah and other factions.
Amid concerns about an escalation of the conflict, Hamas called on Palestinians to rise up on Friday in protest of Israeli bombings on Gaza, and urged Palestinians to march to the Al Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem. , and to confront Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank.
Israel has been bombing Gaza for days in retaliation for the Hamas attack last Saturday that caused the death of at least 1,300 Israelis, according to the public broadcaster Kan, the largest attack against civilians in the history of Israel. More than 1,500 Palestinians, a third of them children, have been killed in the retaliatory attacks, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, and there is widespread concern about a humanitarian crisis in the enclave. The Israeli air force declared on Thursday that it had dropped 6,000 bombs on Gaza since Saturday.
Human Rights Watch on Thursday accused Israel of using white phosphorus munitions in operations in Gaza and Lebanon, saying the use of such weapons puts civilians at risk of serious and long-term injuries.
When asked to respond to the allegations, the Israeli military said it is “currently not aware of the use of weapons containing white phosphorus in Gaza.” He did not comment on the human rights watchdog’s allegations about its use in Lebanon.
White phosphorus munitions can be legally used on battlefields to make smoke screens, generate illumination, mark targets or burn bunkers and buildings, but they are considered an incendiary weapon under Protocol III of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons. The protocol prohibits the use of incendiary weapons against military targets located among civilians, although Israel has not signed it and is not bound by it.
A ground offensive in Gaza is likely to lead to even more casualties on both sides in brutal house-to-house fighting. Israel has mobilized an unprecedented 360,000 reservists, massed additional forces near the strip and evacuated tens of thousands of nearby residents.
Dozens of Israeli and foreign hostages were taken back to Gaza; Israel claimed to have identified 97 so far. Israeli ministers have said the humanitarian siege of the Gaza Strip will not end until all hostages are freed, amid growing concerns over water, food and fuel shortages.
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