Israel tells a million civilians in Gaza to leave their homes and move southwards in 24 hours
Mourners attend the funeral of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes. Reuters
Israel’s military told some 1 million Palestinians living in Gaza on Friday to evacuate the north, according to the United Nations, an unprecedented order for almost half the population of the sealed-off territory ahead of an expected ground invasion against the Hamas group.
The UN warned that so many people fleeing en masse would be calamitous, and Hamas dismissed it as a ploy and called on people to stay in their homes. The evacuation order, which includes Gaza City, home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, sparked confusion among civilians and aid workers already running from Israeli airstrikes and contending with a total siege and a territory-wide power blackout.
"Forget about food, forget about electricity, forget about fuel. The only concern now is just if you’ll make it, if you’re going to live,” said Nebal Farsakh, a spokeswoman for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza City, breaking into heaving sobs. The week-old war has already claimed over 2,800 lives on both sides and sent tensions soaring across the region.
Weekly Muslim prayers later on Friday could bring mass protests at a flashpoint holy site in east Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and elsewhere. Israel has traded fire in recent days with Lebanon's Hezbollah group, sparking fears of an ever wider conflict, though that frontier is currently calm. Hamas said Israel’s bombardment has killed 13 of the hostages, including foreigners. It did not give the nationality of the foreigners, saying they were killed over the last 24 hours.
On Thursday, Israel said its complete siege of the territory – which has left Palestinians desperate for food, fuel and medicine – would remain in place until Hamas militants free some 150 hostages. "Not a single electricity switch will be flipped on, not a single faucet will be turned on and not a single fuel truck will enter until the Israeli hostages are returned home,” Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz said on social media.
UN receives separate directive
The Israeli military sent one evacuation order directly on Friday morning, warning the residents of Gaza City to flee south in the narrow coastal territory, which is just 40 kilometres (25 miles) long. Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said the military will use "significant force” while making "extensive efforts to avoid harming civilians.” The United Nations said it received a separate directive from the military, giving all 1.1 million civilians of northern Gaza 24 hours to flee south.
The Israeli military did not immediately confirm the broader evacuation order. "The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said. "The United Nations strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded, avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation.”
Hamas called on Palestinians to stay in their homes, saying "the (Israeli) occupation is trying to create confusion among citizens and harm the cohesion of our internal front.” It called on Palestinians to ignore what it said was ”psychological warfare.” "This is chaos, no one understands what to do,” said Inas Hamdan, an officer at the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza City, while she grabbed whatever she could throw into her bags as the panicked shouts of her relatives could be heard around her. She said all the UN staff in Gaza City and northern Gaza had been told to evacuate south to Rafah.
Farsakh, of the Palestinian Red Crescent, said there was no way so many people could be safely moved – especially those with ailments. "What will happen to our patients?” she asked. "We have wounded, we have elderly, we have children who are in hospitals.” Farsakh said many of the medics were refusing to evacuate hospitals and abandon patients. Instead, she said, they called their colleagues to say goodbye.
Beyond the immediate fear and logistical difficulties, the order has deep resonance in Gaza, where more than half of the Palestinians are the descendants of refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, when hundreds of thousands fled or were expelled from what is now Israel. That exodus is deeply seared 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 UN said on Thursday.
Evacuation order also applies to UN staff
The UN said the broad evacuation warning it received for all of Gaza’s north also applies to all UN staff and to the hundreds of thousands who have taken shelter in UN schools and other facilities since Israel launched round-the-clock airstrikes Saturday.
Another UN official said that the United Nations is trying to get clarity from Israeli officials at the seniormost political level. Neighbouring Egypt has meanwhile taken "unprecedented measures” to prevent a breach of its border with Gaza, a senior Egyptian security official said. He said a potential ground invasion would be a "grave mistake.”
France bans pro-Palestinian protests
France’s interior minister on Thursday ordered local authorities to ban all pro-Palestinian demonstrations amid a rise in anti-Semitic acts since Hamas attacked Israel over the weekend. President Emmanuel Macron urged French people not to allow the war in the Mideast erupt into tensions at home.
Soon before Macron spoke in a televised address to the nation about the Mideast conflict, Paris police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse pro-Palestinian protesters who had defied a ban and demonstrated on Thursday against the Israeli government. ’’Let us not bring ideological adventures here (to France) by imitation or by projection. Let us not add national fractures ... to international fractures,″
Macron pleaded. ’’Let us stay united.″
Thousands of Iraqis poured onto the streets of Baghdad on Friday in support of Palestinians amid Israeli air strikes on Gaza, state television said. "No to the occupation! No to America!" chanted the demonstrators, who had gathered in Tahrir Square after Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr called for a demonstration "in support of Gaza" and against Israel, an AFP journalist reported.
Associated Press
