As Israel’s military called for all civilians of Gaza City, more than one million people, to relocate south within 24 hours on Friday, the UN urged Tel Aviv to call off the order, warning of the “devastating humanitarian consequences”.
The order came as Israel amassed tanks near the Gaza Strip ahead of an expected ground invasion.
“Now is a time for war,” Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Thursday as Israeli warplanes continued pounding Gaza in retaliation for the deadliest attack by Hamas fighters in its history.
Key developments
- Israel gives civilians in Gaza City 24 hours to evacuate southward
- UN urges Israel to call off order, says it can’t take place without ‘devastating human consequences’
- WHO says moving severely ill people, including those on life support, amounts to a ‘death sentence’
- Over 1,500 Gazans killed in Israeli bombardment, 423,000 Palestinians displaced
Israeli death toll from Hamas offensive rises to 1,300
The Israeli military said it would operate “significantly” in Gaza City in the coming days and civilians would only be able to return when another announcement was made.
“Civilians of Gaza City, evacuate south for your own safety and the safety of your families and distance yourself from Hamas terrorists who are using you as human shields,” the military said in a statement.
“Hamas terrorists are hiding in Gaza City inside tunnels underneath houses and inside buildings populated with innocent Gazan civilians.”
This map shows the Gaza Strip prior to the current escalation in October. — OCHA document ‘Flash Appeal for the Occupied Palestinian Territory’
Hamas, on the other hand, rejected the Israeli order.
“Our Palestinian people reject the threat of the occupation (Israeli) leaders and its call for them to leave their homes and flee from them to the south or Egypt,” the group said in a statement.
“We are steadfast on our land and in our homes and our cities. There will be no displacement,” it said.
Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas which led the offensive on Saturday, but a ground invasion of Gaza poses serious risk with Hamas holding scores of hostages kidnapped in the assault. Public broadcaster Kan said the Israeli death toll had risen to more than 1,300.
The Israeli military said in a statement on Friday that it struck “750 military targets” in northern Gaza overnight, including what it claimed were Hamas tunnels, military compounds, residences of senior operatives and weapons storage warehouses. Since Saturday, it has rained 6,000 bombs on Gaza, flattening entire neighbourhoods.
Gaza authorities said more than 1,500 Palestinians had been killed.
Israel has put Gaza, home to 2.3 million people, under siege.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said fuel powering emergency generators at hospitals in Gaza could run out within hours and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned food and fresh water were running dangerously low.
“The human misery caused by this escalation is abhorrent, and I implore the sides to reduce the suffering of civilians,” ICRC regional director Fabrizio Carboni said.
In Gaza’s main southern city Khan Younis, where cemeteries were already full, dead were being buried in empty lots, like the Samour family, killed on Wednesday night in a strike that hit their house.
Palestinian rescue worker Ibrahim Hamdan drove from one bomb site to another as his team tried to pull survivors from houses destroyed by the Israeli air strikes.
“This war is harsh beyond imagining,” said Hamdan, who has worked through repeated wars since becoming a rescuer in 2007. “They knock down high-rise buildings on top of their residents.”
Human Rights Watch on Thursday accused Israel of using white phosphorus munitions in its military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, saying the use of such weapons puts civilians at risk of serious and long-term injury.
Israel’s military said it was “currently not aware of the use of weapons containing white phosphorus in Gaza”.
Gazans, mainly descendants of refugees who fled or were expelled from homes in Israel at its founding in 1948, have suffered economic collapse and repeated Israeli bombardment under a blockade since Hamas seized power there 16 years ago.
Palestinian anger has mounted in recent months, with Israel carrying out the deadliest crackdown for years in the West Bank and its right-wing government talking of seizing more land. A peace process meant to create a Palestinian state collapsed a decade ago, which Palestinian leaders say left the population with no hope, strengthening extremists.
