Israel issued a “relocation order” within 24 hours for about 1.1 million people in the southern Gaza Strip, the UN said, calling for the order to be revoked.
On Thursday, UN 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 UN spokesman said. Secretary-General of the United Nations Stéphane Dujarric.
An evacuation of this magnitude is “impossible without causing devastating humanitarian consequences,” spokesman António Guterres said.
“This amounts to approximately 1.1 million people. The same order applies to all UN personnel and refugees in UN facilities, including schools, health centers and clinics,” he said.
Dujarric called for the suspension of this order, “to avoid what could turn a tragedy into a disaster.”
The Israeli military 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 return after further notice allows the return.”
This 24-hour deadline was given when Israel threatened a ground invasion of Palestinian territory.
Hamas rejects ultimatum for civilians to leave northern Gaza Strip
Hamas has already said it rejects the Israeli army’s 24-hour ultimatum for civilians to withdraw from northern Gaza.
“Our Palestinian people reject the threat of the occupation leaders [israelita] and their calls for them to leave their homes and flee to the south or to Egypt,” Hamas said in a statement cited by the French agency AFP.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which has been critical of the Israeli order, announced today that it has withdrawn south of the Gaza Strip.
“Because we understand that there are civilians here who are not our enemies and that we do not want to attack them, we ask them to leave,” said Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus, quoted by the US agency AP.
Israel has concentrated its troops near the Gaza Strip in a sign of a possible ground offensive after bombing territory controlled by the Islamist group Hamas in recent days.
The escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered by Hamas’ unprecedented incursion into Israel last Saturday, killing civilians and soldiers and taking more than a hundred hostages to the Gaza Strip.
Since then, the conflict has resulted in more than 1,300 deaths on the Israeli side and more than 1,500 on the Palestinian side.
Israeli bombing has also displaced more than 423,000 people in the Gaza Strip.
Source: DN
