Israel issued a “displacement order” for around 1.1 million people from the northern Gaza Strip to the south within 24 hours, the UN said, calling for the order to be rescinded.
On Thursday, U.N. officials in Gaza “were informed by Israeli army liaison officers that the entire population north of Wadi Gaza had to be moved south within 24 hours,” the U.N. spokesman said. , the Secretary General of the United Nations, Stéphane Dujarric.
An evacuation of this scale is “impossible without causing devastating humanitarian consequences,” added spokesman António Guterres.
“This is equivalent to approximately 1.1 million people. The same order covers all UN staff and refugees in UN facilities, including schools, health centers and clinics,” he said.
Dujarric asked that this order be suspended, “avoiding what could turn a tragedy into a calamity.”
The Israeli army called, in a statement, for “the withdrawal of all civilians in Gaza City from their homes in the south, for their own safety and protection,” adding that they will be allowed “to return to Gaza City after a new announcement to allow the return”.
This 24-hour period occurred when Israel threatened to launch a ground incursion into Palestinian territory.
The Islamist movement Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, launched a surprise attack on Israeli territory on Saturday, called Operation “Al-Aqsa Storm”, with the launch of thousands of rockets and the incursion of armed rebels on the ground. and sea. and air.
In response, Israel bombed several Hamas facilities in that Palestinian territory from the air, in an operation it called “Iron Swords.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on Hamas, classified as a terrorist movement by Israel, the United States, the EU, among others.
Official data on fatalities point to 1,300 deaths in Israel and 1,354 in the Gaza Strip, according to official sources from both parties.
Source: TSF
