1 million Palestinians on Friday to evacuate northern Gaza. Israel Military
Hamas calls on Palestinians to stay home
Antony Blinken, along with shipments of U.S. weapons, offered a powerful green light to Israel to drive ahead with its retaliation in Gaza
“The call from the Israelis Forces to move more than 1 million civilians living in northern Gaza within 24 hours is horrendous,” Philippe Lazzarini,
Will open a new front in Israel’s war against Hamas if the blockade of Gaza and attacks on civilians there continue, Iran’s Foreign Minister
JERUSALEM ( Web News )
Israel’s military told some 1 million Palestinians on Friday to evacuate northern Gaza and head to the southern part of the besieged territory, an unprecedented order applying to almost half the population ahead of an expected ground invasion against the ruling Hamas militant group. AP news reported.
The U.N. warned that so many people fleeing en masse — with just a 24-hour deadline — would be calamitous. Hamas, which staged a shocking and brutal attack on Israel nearly a week ago and has fired thousands of rockets since, dismissed it as a ploy and called on people to stay in their homes.
Israel’s military on Friday directed the evacuation of northern Gaza, a region that is home to 1.1 million people — about half of the territory’s population — within 24 hours, a U.N. spokesman said.
This could signal an impending ground offensive, though the Israeli military has not yet confirmed such an appeal. On Thursday it said that while it was preparing, a decision has not yet been made.
The order, delivered to the U.N., comes as Israel presses an offensive against Hamas militants. U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric called the order “impossible” without “devastating humanitarian consequences.”
A visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, along with shipments of U.S. weapons, offered a powerful green light to Israel to drive ahead with its retaliation in Gaza after Hamas’ deadly attack on civilians and soldiers, even as international aid groups warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis. Israel has halted deliveries of basic necessities and electricity to Gaza’s 2.3 million people and prevented entry of supplies from Egypt.
Israel’s call for more than 1 million civilians in northern Gaza to move within 24 hours is going to be a “tall order,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Friday.
“That is a lot of people to move in a very short period of time,” Kirby said in an interview on MSNBC.
“We understand what they’re trying to do and why they’re trying to do this – to try to isolate the civilian population from Hamas, which is their real target.”
Israel’s military made the call as it amassed tanks for an expected ground invasion in response to a devastating attack by the militant group Hamas.
“The call from the Israelis Forces to move more than 1 million civilians living in northern Gaza within 24 hours is horrendous,” Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said in a statement.
“This will only lead to unprecedented levels of misery and further push people in Gaza into abyss.”
Lazzarini said more than 423,000 people have already been displaced, and more than 270,000 had taken refuge in UNRWA shelters.
“The scale and speed of the unfolding humanitarian crisis is bone-chilling,” he said. “Gaza is fast becoming a hell hole and is on the brink of collapse.”
UNRWA said earlier on Friday that it had relocated its central operations center and international staff to Gaza’s south to continue its humanitarian operations.
Established in 1949 following the first Arab-Israeli war, the agency provides public services including schooling, primary healthcare and humanitarian aid in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
Israeli authorities have accused UNRWA of perpetuating the Palestinian refugee problem and said that anti-Israeli sentiment is rife in its institutions – charges the agency dismisses.
Hezbollah deputy chief said on Friday that the Iran-backed group was “ready” and would “contribute” to confrontations against Israel according to its own plan, despite foreign powers asking them to stay on the sidelines.
Sheikh Naim Qassem said that major powers, Arab countries and the United Nations had “directly and indirectly” told Hezbollah “not to interfere” in ongoing fighting between Israel and Hamas.
The Arab League on Friday accused Israel of resorting to the “brutal” use of military force to punish civilians in Gaza, describing such acts as a “horrendous act of vengeance.”
“What Israel is doing is a horrendous vengeful act that [relies] on the brutal use of military force to punish helpless residents and civilians in Gaza through random targeting,” the Arab League said in a letter addressed to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
The league also called on the UN to use its “political and moral clout” to prevent a “new war crime that Israel is planning to commit as part of its shameful bloody campaign against Gaza” by asking residents to relocate to the south immediately.
“This new crime is a flagrant violation of Article 49 of the IV Geneva Convention,” the league said.
Tehran-backed militants could open a new front in Israel’s war against Hamas if the blockade of Gaza and attacks on civilians there continue, Iran’s Foreign Minister said, signaling a potential expansion of the conflict ahead of a meeting with Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
“Of course in the case of the continuation of war crimes and the humanitarian blockade of Gaza and Palestine every possibility and decision by the other currents of the resistance is possible,” Hossein Amirabdollahian told reporters in Beirut when asked about the possibility of a second front.
He cited the killing of civilians and cutting off of electricity in Gaza as examples of alleged war crimes.
The Lebanese Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah later met with the visiting Iranian minister on Friday. The two discussed “everyone’s responsibilities and the positions that need to be taken with regards to these historical events and developments,” according to a Hezbollah statement.