Israel’s military on Friday announced that all civilians of Gaza City, more than 1 million people, must relocate south within 24 hours, as it amassed tanks near the Gaza Strip ahead of an expected ground invasion.
“Now is a time for war,” Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Thursday as Israeli warplanes continued pounding Gaza in retaliation for the deadliest attack by Palestinian militants in its history.
The Israeli military said it would operate “significantly” in Gaza City in the coming days and civilians would only be able to return when another announcement was made.
The United Nations said it considered it impossible for such a movement to take place “without devastating humanitarian consequences.”
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“The United Nations strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., Gilad Erdan described the U.N.’s response to Israel’s early warning to the residents of Gaza as “shameful”.
A Hamas official said the Gaza relation warning was “fake propaganda” and urged citizens not to fall for it.
Israel has vowed to annihilate the Hamas militant group which led the attacks on Saturday, but a ground invasion of Gaza poses serious risk with Hamas holding scores of hostages kidnapped in the assault.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said fuel powering emergency generators at hospitals in Gaza could run out within hours and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned food and fresh water were running dangerously low.
Seeking to build support for its response, Israel’s government showed U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO defence ministers graphic images of children and civilians they said Hamas had killed in a weekend rampage in Israel.
Blinken said they showed a baby “riddled with bullets,” soldiers beheaded and young people burned in their cars. “It’s simply depravity in the worst imaginable way,” he said. “It’s really beyond anything that we can comprehend.”
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Blinken, seeking to stop spillover from the war, also planned to visit key allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates – some with influence on Hamas, an Islamist group backed by Iran.
The foreign minister of Turkey, who has offered to mediate, held a call with his counterpart from the UAE, a Turkish foreign ministry source said, and will visit Egypt on Friday.
Some Jewish schools in Amsterdam and London were set to close temporarily due to safety concerns and police in New York and Los Angeles stepped up their presence around synagogues and Jewish community centers.
Gazans, mainly descendants of refugees who fled or were expelled from homes in Israel at its founding in 1948, have suffered economic collapse and repeated Israeli bombardment under a blockade since Hamas seized power there 16 years ago.