Israeli military calls for mass evacuation in Gaza City

JERUSALEM: In a dramatic development, the Israeli military has issued a directive for civilians in Gaza City to evacuate their homes, citing upcoming ground military operations in the area over the next few days.

The scope of this announcement means a forced relocation of approximately 1.1 million people, raising significant humanitarian concerns.

According to the Israeli military’s statement, residents of Gaza City are required to move south of their current locations, only allowed to return when granted permission by Israeli forces.

The Israeli military points out that Hamas terrorists are using civilian areas as cover for their activities, putting the lives of innocent Gazan civilians at risk.

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The United Nations (UN) has issued a grave warning in response to this situation, expressing deep concerns about the dire humanitarian consequences of Israel’s plan to clear the northern part of the Gaza Strip of its population.

The UN, including its staff, is working to facilitate this massive evacuation, reflecting the urgency of the situation. There is growing fear that an Israeli ground operation may be imminent, intensifying concerns for the affected population.

Furthermore, Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, has weighed in on the matter, suggesting that continued Israeli attacks on Gaza could escalate the conflict to “other fronts,” potentially alluding to the involvement of Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, has declared its readiness to resist any Israeli ground invasion of Gaza, further intensifying the volatile situation.

The toll of this ongoing crisis is evident in the displacement of over 423,000 people from their homes in Gaza due to Israeli bombardment. The World Health Organization has issued a stark warning that Gaza’s health system is teetering on the edge of collapse, emphasizing the urgency of addressing the looming humanitarian catastrophe.

Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, has issued a dire warning, comparing Israel’s directive to evacuate 1.1 million Palestinians from northern Gaza to the forced displacement during the Nakba in 1948. Shakir has called upon the international community to take immediate action to avert a humanitarian calamity, stressing that history will harshly judge any silence on this matter.

Meanwhile, Progressive US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has strongly criticized Israel’s efforts to relocate over 1.1 million Palestinians from northern Gaza, considering it a step towards a ground invasion. She has emphasized the impracticality of evacuating such a vast population within 24 hours and highlighted the severe humanitarian consequences, especially for the nearly half of those affected who are children. Ocasio-Cortez has called for swift international intervention to address this alarming situation.