Jerusalem –
The Israeli military on Friday told about 1 million Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza and head to the southern part of the besieged area. This is an unprecedented order that applies to almost half the population ahead of an expected ground invasion against the ruling group Hamas.
The United Nations warned that if so many people fled en masse, the consequences would be dire. Hamas, which launched a shocking and brutal attack on Israel almost a week ago and has fired thousands of rockets since then, dismissed it as a ruse and called on people to stay at home.
The evacuation order, which also targeted Gaza City, home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, sparked panic among civilians and aid workers already fleeing Israeli airstrikes and battling total siege and power outages across the territory. expanded.
“Forget about food, forget about electricity, forget about fuel. The only worry now is whether we will survive, whether we will survive,” said Nebal Farsak, a spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Gaza City. I just ask,” he said. she started sobbing.
The war has already claimed more than 2,800 lives on both sides and heightened tensions across the region. Israel has engaged in gun battles with Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in recent days, raising concerns that the conflict could escalate further, but the border area is currently calm.
Weekly Muslim prayers have sparked protests in some neighboring countries and heightened tensions in Jerusalem’s Old City. The Islamic Fund, which manages the Al-Aqsa Mosque grounds, a flashpoint holy site in the city, announced that Israeli authorities are barring Palestinian men under the age of 50 from entering.
Israel has been bombarding Gaza around the clock since the weekend attacks, in which Hamas fighters stormed into the south of the country and killed children in their homes, young people at a music festival, and dozens of other attacks. A hundred people were massacred. The militants also kidnapped about 150 people and dragged them into Gaza.
Hamas announced that 13 hostages, including foreigners, were killed by Israeli shelling. He said he was killed within the past 24 hours and did not specify his nationality.
Israeli military spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari denied that any hostages were killed in the airstrike, telling Al Jazeera Arabic: “We have independent information and do not believe Hamas’s lies.”
Hagari said the military urged all civilians in northern Gaza to move south. The order will affect 1.1 million people, the United Nations announced.
Israel said it needed to target Hamas’ military infrastructure, much of which is buried deep underground. Another spokesman, Jonathan Conrics, said the military would make “significant efforts to avoid harm to civilians” and allow residents to return once the war ends.
Hamas militants operate in civilian areas, and Israel has long accused Hamas of using Palestinians as human shields. A large-scale evacuation of civilians would put combatants at greater risk than ever before.
But U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said it would be impossible to carry out such an evacuation without “catastrophic humanitarian consequences.” He called on Israel to revoke such orders, saying they could “turn an already tragic situation into a disaster.”
Meanwhile, Hamas said Israel was “trying to cause chaos among its people and undermine the unity of the internal front” and called on Palestinians to stay at home. The newspaper called on Palestinians to ignore what it claimed was “psychological warfare”.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health said it was impossible to evacuate the large number of injured people from the hospital and that hospital staff would not heed warnings.
Spokesman Ashraf al-Khidra said: “We have a duty and a humanitarian mission and cannot evacuate hospitals or leave the injured and sick alone.” He said there was simply no other place in the Gaza Strip that could receive and treat patients in the event of a violent attack by Israel.
The United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency, known as UNRWA, also said it had not evacuated schools, where hundreds of thousands of people have fled. However, spokeswoman Juliet Touma said it had moved its headquarters to southern Gaza.
“This is a war zone,” Israeli military spokesman Hagari warned reporters when asked if the military would protect hospitals, U.N. shelters and other civilian facilities.
He added: “If Hamas prevents residents from evacuating, the responsibility lies with the residents.”
The evacuation order was taken as a further sign of an already expected Israeli ground attack, but Israel has not yet announced such a decision.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to “crush” Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007. The regime is under intense public pressure to topple Hamas, rather than simply contain it in Gaza, as it has for years.
Thursday’s visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the shipment of U.S. weapons provided a strong green light for Israel to proceed with retaliation. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin arrived in Israel on Friday.
Still, a ground attack in the densely populated and impoverished Gaza Strip would likely result in even more casualties on both sides in intense house-to-house fighting.
Yasser Hassouna, an activist in Gaza City, said “everyone panicked” when they saw the U.N. staff leave. “Hamas said this was psychological warfare, but we know there were a lot of things like that. At the moment, no one knows what is real and what is fake news.”
Farsak of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said there was no way to safely move so many people, especially those who were sick.
“What will happen to our patients?” she asked. “We have injured people, we have elderly people, we have children in hospital.” Farsak said many medical workers are refusing to evacuate hospitals or abandon patients. Stated. Instead, they called their colleagues to say goodbye.
Beyond the immediate fear and logistical difficulties, the order has deep resonance in the Gaza Strip. More than half of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are descendants of hundreds of thousands of refugees who were displaced or expelled from modern-day Israel during the 1948 war over the creation of Israel. That escape is burned deeply into their collective memory.
Already, at least 423,000 people – nearly one in five Gazans – have been forced from their homes by Israeli airstrikes, the United Nations said Thursday.
Neighboring Egypt, meanwhile, has taken “unprecedented steps” to strengthen its border with Gaza and prevent violations, a senior Egyptian security official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.
Egypt, which made peace with Israel decades ago and has long acted as a regional mediator, is adamantly opposed to the resettlement of Palestinians in its territory. This is both because it is costly and because it undermines the quest for an independent state. The Rafah Strip, which enters Egypt from the Gaza Strip, is the only area not under Israeli control, but it has been closed due to airstrikes.
Hamas’ unprecedented attack last Saturday and heavy rocket fire over the following days left more than 1,300 people dead in Israel, including 247 soldiers. This is a sacrifice not seen in Israel for decades. The ensuing Israeli shelling killed more than 1,530 people in the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Israel says about 1,500 Hamas fighters have been killed in Israel, and hundreds of dead in the Gaza Strip are Hamas members.
Israel announced Thursday that its total siege of Gaza, which has left Palestinians desperate for food, fuel and medicine, will continue until Hamas militants free hostages captured.
“Until the Israeli hostages return home, not a single light switch will be opened, not a single tap will be opened, and not a single fuel truck will enter,” Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz said on social media.
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Shurafa reported from Gaza City and the Gaza Strip, and Lederer reported from Chicago. Associated Press writers Joseph Kraus in Jerusalem, Sammy Crabbe in Baghdad, Samy Magdy in Cairo and Kareem Chehaib in Beirut contributed to this report.
