The Israeli military told the United Nations late Thursday evening that the entire population in the northern Gaza Strip should be evacuated south.
Stephane Dujarric, a UN spokesman, told CBS News that Israeli military liaison officers informed the UN shortly before midnight local time on Thursday that the entire population north of the Wadi Gaza wetland “will be relocated to the south of the Gaza Strip within the next 24 hours.” “should.
According to the UN it is around 1.1. Millions of people living in the northern Gaza Strip.
The UN “considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” Dujarric said, and “strongly calls for such an order, if confirmed, to be repealed in order to avoid the already existing consequences.” could turn a tragic situation into a catastrophic one.”
The UN’s response “to Israel’s early warning to the residents of the Gaza Strip,” said Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan, was “shameful” and ignored the brutality of the attack on Israel.
Early Friday local time, IDF ordered hundreds of thousands of Gaza City residents to move further south in the Gaza Strip for their “own safety”.
In response, Hamas urged Palestinians to remain in their homes, according to the Associated Press.
“This is chaos, no one understands what to do,” the AP quoted Inas Hamdan, an official with the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency in Gaza City.
According to the latest United Nations figures, at least 338,000 Gazans have been displaced since Hamas invaded southern Israel on October 7, prompting retaliatory Israeli attacks on Gaza.
About 300,000 Israeli soldiers have gathered outside the Gaza Strip border. Israel Defense Forces international spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus did not specifically say Wednesday that Israel was preparing a ground attack on Gaza, but noted that troops, along with tanks, armored vehicles and other artillery, were “making preparations for the next phase of the attack.” “The Gaza Strip was hit by the war that will come when the time is right and suitable for our purposes.”
— Jordan Freiman contributed to this report.