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 Palestinian civilians” must leave Gaza. The injunction was announced by the Israeli army on Friday, October 13th. on social networks, but also through leaflets dropped on the territory. Six days after Hamas’ deadly incursion into its territory, Israel called for the “evacuation” of all residents of the city. “For their safety” they are ordered to “join” the south of the Gaza Strip, while Tshahal could launch a ground offensive any day.
In particular, the Israeli army urged civilians to “go to the area south of Wadi Gaza,” a stream that marks the city’s southern border. The affected population, estimated by the UN Secretary-General to be more than a million inhabitants, is forced to join the other millions of Gaza residents in an area of just 325 square kilometers.
The map shows the evacuation plan requested by the Israeli army for the population of Gaza on October 13, 2023. (ASTRID AMADIEU / FRANCEINFO)
Hamas rejects this evacuation. “Our Palestinian people reject the occupation leaders’ threats and their calls to leave their homes and flee to the south or Egypt,” the Islamic group said in a statement on Friday.
Residents of the Gaza Strip who face this Israeli threat can only seek refuge in their own territory. The Gaza Strip, located on the Mediterranean, borders only two countries: Israel and Egypt. However, Cairo called on Palestinians on Thursday to “stay on their land.” In addition, the Rafah border post, the only border crossing with Egypt, is currently closed after being targeted by three Israeli bombings.
An evacuation condemned by the UN
The United Nations “strongly called for the lifting of this order (…) as Palestinians struggle with an extremely complicated everyday life.” Gaza is under siege and there are numerous water and power outages. According to local authorities, the Israeli army has carried out relentless attacks on the Gaza Strip since the Hamas offensive, killing at least 1,799 people, most of them civilians. Almost 423,000 Palestinians have already been forced 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, in turn, “completely rejected” the expulsion of the residents of the Gaza Strip and equated it with a “second Nakba”. A reference to the flight of approximately 760,000 Palestinians in 1948 during the creation of the State of Israel. More than 80% of Gaza’s current residents are refugees who have been displaced from their homes this year.