Israeli authorities on Friday ordered Palestinians to leave Gaza City “immediately”, despite the challenge posed by this evacuation of more than a million people.
“All civilians” Palestinians must leave Gaza. The injunction was communicated by the Israeli army on Friday October 13, on social networks, but also via leaflets dropped on the territory. Six days after Hamas’ deadly incursion into its territory, Israel demanded “evacuation” of all the inhabitants of the city. “For their safety”they are enjoined to “join” the south of the Gaza Strip, while Tshahal could launch a ground offensive any day now.
More specifically, the Israeli army called on civilians to “go to the area south of Wadi Gaza”, a stream setting the southern limit of the city. The population concerned, estimated at more than a million inhabitants by the UN Secretary General, is forced to join the other million residents of the Gaza Strip, in a territory of only 325 square kilometers.
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Hamas refuses this evacuation. “Our Palestinian people reject the threat of the occupation leaders and their calls to leave their homes and flee to the south or Egypt”maintained the Islamic group in a press release on Friday.
Gazan residents under this Israeli threat can only take refuge in their own territory. The Gaza Strip, located along the Mediterranean Sea, borders only two countries: Israel and Egypt. However, Cairo called on the Palestinians on Thursday to “stay on their land”. In addition, the Rafah border post, the only crossing point with Egypt, is currently closed, after being targeted by three Israeli bombings.
An evacuation condemned by the UN
The United Nations called “strongly expect this order (…) to be canceled”, while the Palestinians deal with an extremely complicated daily life. Gaza is under siege, and there are numerous water and electricity cuts. Since the Hamas offensive, the Israeli army has relentlessly carried out strikes on the Gaza Strip, killing at least 1,799 people, the majority of them civilians, according to local authorities. Nearly 423,000 Palestinians have already had to leave their homes and 64% of them have so far found refuge in the Gaza branches of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, for his part, rejected “totally moving” residents of the Gaza Strip, assimilating it to a “second Nakba”. A reference to the flight in 1948 of some 760,000 Palestinians during the creation of the State of Israel. More than 80% of the current residents of the Gaza Strip are refugees driven from their homes that year.