Israel gave a million Gazans 24 hours to flee before the operation

The Israeli military has ordered the evacuation of nearly half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents ahead of an expected ground offensive aimed at destroying the Hamas militant group following its unprecedented attack on Israel, UN officials said.

According to The Guardian, this order sowed panic among civilians and aid workers who were already suffering from Israeli airstrikes and the blockade.

The Israeli military sent one evacuation order directly Friday morning, warning hundreds of thousands of Gaza City civilians to flee further south into the Gaza Strip, a narrow coastal area. An Israeli directive said Hamas militants were hiding in tunnels under the city.

“This evacuation is for your own safety,” the Israeli military said in a warning it said was aimed at Gaza City civilians.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary-general, told several news outlets that UN staff working in Gaza have received instructions from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) “that the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza must move to southern Gaza within next 24 hours,” adding that this amounts to approximately 1.1 million people.

Dujarric said the same order applies to all UN staff and those sheltered in UN institutions, including schools, health centers and clinics. The UN Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA) is providing shelter to more than 60% of the 423,000 people displaced in the Gaza Strip in recent days.

It is unclear how many people are currently north of Wadi Gaza.

“The United Nations considers it impossible for such a displacement to occur without devastating humanitarian consequences,” Dujarric said. “The United Nations urges that any such order, should it be confirmed, be rescinded to avoid what could turn what is already a tragedy into a catastrophic situation.”

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said: “The UN’s response to Israel’s early warning to the people of Gaza is disgraceful.” Erdan said the UN should focus on condemning Hamas and supporting Israel’s right to self-defense.

Salama Marouf, head of the Hamas government’s press office, said the relocation warning was an attempt by Israel to “broadcast and transmit false propaganda aimed at sowing confusion among citizens and harming our internal cohesion.”

The warning came as Iran’s foreign minister said continued crimes against Palestinians would trigger a response from the “rest of the axis” as Israel continues to bomb Gaza.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian did not provide further details, but the “axis of resistance” refers to an alliance between Iran, Palestinian militant groups, Syria, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and other groups.

Amid fears of a widening conflict, Hamas called on Palestinians to rise up on Friday to protest Israel’s bombing of Gaza, calling on Palestinians to march to the Al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem and clash with Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank.

Israel has been carrying out strikes on Gaza for days in retaliation for Hamas rampages that have killed at least 1,300 Israelis, according to public broadcaster Kan, in the deadliest attack on civilians in Israeli history. More than 1,500 Palestinians, a third of them children, have been killed in retaliatory strikes, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and there are widespread fears of a humanitarian crisis in the enclave. The Israeli air force said Thursday it had dropped 6,000 bombs on Gaza since Saturday.

Human rights activists on Thursday accused Israel of using white phosphorus munitions in operations in Gaza and Lebanon, saying the use of such weapons puts civilians at risk of serious and long-term injury.

Asked to comment on these allegations, the Israeli military said it was “currently unaware of the use of weapons containing white phosphorus in Gaza.” They have not commented on the human rights organization’s claims about their use in Lebanon.

White phosphorus ammunition can be legally used on the battlefield to create smoke screens, provide illumination, mark targets or set bunkers and buildings on fire, but are considered incendiary weapons under Protocol III of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons. The protocol prohibits the use of incendiary weapons against military objectives located among civilian populations, although Israel has not signed it and is not bound by it.

Late Thursday, Israel’s parliament approved Benjamin Netanyahu’s emergency unity government, including a number of centrist opposition lawmakers, with the prime minister warning of “difficult days ahead” but determined to achieve “total victory.”

Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman, told reporters that the military was preparing for a ground offensive in Gaza, but political leaders had not yet ordered one. Netanyahu vowed to “crush and destroy” Hamas.

Israeli bombing destroyed 752 residential and non-residential buildings, including 2,835 housing units, the UN reported, citing data from Gaza’s Ministry of Public Works and Housing. Nearly 1,800 more housing units were damaged beyond repair and rendered uninhabitable, the report said.

The US has pledged to send more weapons to Israel ahead of an expected ground attack, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Tel Aviv to offer US support for Israel “today, tomorrow, every day”.

Blinken will be joined in Israel on Friday by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who also planned to meet with Netanyahu. Austin previously said the US military does not impose any conditions on its security assistance to Israel, adding that Washington expects the Israeli military to “do the right thing” in its war against Hamas.

European Commission and Parliament presidents Ursula von der Leyen and Roberta Metsola will visit Israel on Friday to “express solidarity with the victims of Hamas terrorist attacks and meet with Israeli leadership.”