More than a million residents in Gaza City were ordered to evacuate to the south within 24 hours on Friday as Israeli tanks massed near the Gaza Strip in preparation for a possible ground attack.
Since the weekend assaults, Israel has been laying siege to the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million people, and has blasted ‘Hamas targets’ in the enclave, killing more than 1,500 Palestinians in horrific retaliation operations.
Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant declared Thursday that “now is a time for war” as Israeli aeroplanes kept bombing Gaza in reprisal for Hamas’ attack over the weekend.
According to the Israeli military, “significant” operations will be carried out in Gaza City over the next few days, and residents will not be allowed back into the area until further notice.
“Civilians of Gaza City, evacuate south for your own safety and the safety of your families and distance yourself from Hamas terrorists who are using you as human shields,” a statement issued by the military.
After a week of retaliatory air attacks and a full Israeli blockade, the United Nations said that evacuating the Palestinian enclave was impossible due to a lack of electricity, food, and water. In addition, it stated that it did not believe such a population shift was conceivable “without devastating humanitarian consequences.”
An official of Hamas warned residents of Gaza not to believe the “fake propaganda” about having to relocate. The Palestinian representative in Japan claimed that Israel intended to destroy all of Gaza.
Palestinians dig through the wreckage left by Israeli attacks in an attempt to locate victims. Reuters Photo.
Palestinians dig through the wreckage left by Israeli attacks in an attempt to locate victims. Reuters Photo.
After Israel sent an early warning to the people of Gaza, the United Nations’ response was deemed “shameful” by Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan. Israel has threatened to destroy the Hamas government.
Iran has warned of a response from its allies, which includes Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon, so top US officials rushed to Israel and others to discuss the situation.
750 military targets, including tunnels, compounds, homes of senior operators, and weapons storage depots, were reportedly hit by Israeli airstrikes in northern Gaza overnight, according to a statement released by the Israeli military on Friday.
Nonetheless, Hamas’s kidnapping of numerous hostages makes a ground invasion of Gaza extremely risky.
Fuel for emergency generators at Gaza hospitals could run out within hours, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned that food and fresh water were running dangerously low.
Regional director of the International Committee of the Red Cross Fabrizio Carboni said, “The human misery caused by this escalation is abhorrent, and I implore the sides to reduce the suffering of civilians.”
The headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and its international personnel have moved to southern Gaza.
Precautions are taken for security reasons.
The White House said on Friday that the US State Department will begin offering charter flights to Europe to assist American citizens in leaving Israel if they so desired.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters on Friday that Japan had prepared for a charter flight to depart Tel Aviv on Saturday for Japanese individuals who wished to leave Israel.
There was civil disturbance across Europe as a result of the conflict; for example, police in Paris used tear gas and water cannons to disperse an illegal gathering in support of the Palestinian people. Safety concerns forced the temporary closure of some Jewish schools in Amsterdam and London.
Police in New York and Los Angeles have reportedly increased patrols around synagogues and Jewish community centres this coming Friday, however, some officials have attempted to downplay the severity of the threat.
On Thursday, the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee, an advocacy group for Arab Americans, stated that FBI agents had visited mosques in several states and individual US residents with Palestinian heritage, describing this as a “troubling trend.” Hundreds of Israelis visited Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl military cemetery on Thursday to lay to rest their fallen.
The Samour family, who were killed on Wednesday night, was buried in an empty lot in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis since the cemeteries there were filled.
Ibrahim Hamdan, a Palestinian rescue worker, drove from one bomb site to another while he and his colleagues searched for survivors in homes levelled by Israeli air strikes.
Israeli airstrikes have wreaked havoc on the Islamic University, destroying and damaging many of its buildings. Reuters Photo.
Israeli airstrikes have wreaked havoc on the Islamic University, destroying and damaging many of its buildings. Reuters Photo.
Since becoming a rescuer in 2007, Hamdan has worked through multiple battles. “This war is harsh beyond imagining,” he added. “They knock down high-rise buildings on top of their residents.”
Under the siege, the economy of Gaza has collapsed, and Israeli forces have repeatedly bombed the territory. The majority of Gazans are descended from refugees who left or were expelled from their homes in Israel at the time of Israel’s formation in 1948.
The right-wing Israeli administration has been talking of grabbing even more Palestinian territory, and Israel’s deadly crackdown in the West Bank in recent months has just added fuel to the fire of Palestinian discontent. Palestinian leaders believe the breakdown of a peace process aimed at creating a Palestinian state a decade ago gave people little hope and strengthened extremists.
