Hamas, in power in Gaza, rejects the evacuation order and asks the population to stay at home. For the UN, such an operation appears “impossible without causing devastating humanitarian consequences”.
A new evacuation order imposed on Gazans. Residents of Gaza City are ordered to leave their homes by Saturday morning, “for their own safety”demands the Israeli army, Friday October 13, in a message also broadcast on his social networks. She calls for “the evacuation of their homes by all civilians from Gaza City to the south”.
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Around a million Palestinians (half the population of the enclave) live in this area ordered to evacuate. The Israeli army justified this measure, decided urgently, by the presence of “terrorists” of Hamas which “use [les civils palestiniens] as human shields. Gazans are also threatened by Israel, which warns: “In the days that follow, the IDF will continue its operations significantly in Gaza City.”
The evacuation order was given by Israel at dawn on Friday
“All civilians” residents of Gaza City were ordered on Friday by the Israeli army to leave their homes. This order comes on the seventh day of its war against Hamas. He announces an intensification of bombings or a possible land offensive of the IDF in the Palestinian enclave. The army specifies that this evacuation, in the name of the “own security” of Gazans, must take place “towards the area south of Wadi Gaza”, a stream located south of the city. She admitted later in the morning that the evacuation “would take time”without confirming the 24-hour deadline, initially communicated by the UN.
The stated objective is to seal off Gaza and empty the north of the Palestinian territory. And this, for an indefinite period since the Israeli forces specify that Gazan residents will not be “allowed[s] to return to Gaza City only when another announcement permitting it is made”adds Israel, which does not exercise authority in this area.
The UN headquarters in Gaza was being evacuated on Friday morning, the international editorial staff of Radio France learned from a diplomatic source. In accordance with Israeli instructions, the United Nations planned to relocate near Rafah, the border crossing which separates the south of the Palestinian territory from Egypt.
Hamas refuses evacuation order and denounces “false propaganda”
In its message posted Friday, the Israeli army justifies this order imposed on the Palestinians by the fact that “Hamas terrorists are hiding in Gaza City”. IDF listed hiding places “in tunnels under houses and inside buildings populated by innocent Gazan civilians”.
“Our Palestinian people reject the threat of the occupation leaders and their calls to leave their homes and flee to the south or Egypt”Hamas responded. The spokesperson for the Islamist group denounced “false propaganda” destined to “sow confusion” in Gaza and harm the “internal cohesion”. In a press release cited by AFP, the terrorist organization in power in the Gaza Strip calls on residents not to comply with this injunction. “There will be no travel,” says Hamas, telling its members “steadfast on [leurs] land, in [leurs] houses, and in [leurs] cities”.
UN calls for cancellation of evacuation order
Faced with bombings in recent days, nearly 423,000 residents of the Gaza Strip have already had to leave their homes, but many remain trapped by the strikes, without knowing where to go. As a result, many Palestinians have taken refuge in the city’s schools and hospitals, overwhelmed by the influx of injured patients. “The Palestinian Ministry of Health has informed the WHO that it is impossible to evacuate vulnerable patients from hospitals in northern Gaza. explained a spokesperson for the World Health Organization.
The spokesperson for the UN Secretary General, Stéphane Dujarric, estimates that this evacuation order concerns more than a million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip. He judges the operation “impossible without causing devastating humanitarian consequences”. Completely evacuating the city would amount to concentrating more than two million inhabitants, present in the Gaza Strip, in the remaining 325 square kilometers of this territory.
Gazans cannot approach the border with Israel, the IDF also threatened. Furthermore, the border between the Palestinian territory and Egypt has been bombed on several occasions. The Egyptian president urged them on Thursday to “stay on their land”. This evacuation order is therefore “totally unrealistic” And “the Israeli authorities know it”, commented on franceinfo Johann Soufiformer legal head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
In these circumstances, “The United Nations strongly calls for this order (…) to be rescinded to prevent what is already a tragedy from becoming a calamitous situation”insisted his spokesperson on Friday from New York. A new emergency meeting must be held today, behind closed doors at the UN Security Council.