Fire and smoke rise above buildings in Gaza City during an Israeli air strike, on October 13, 2023.
The IDF’s evacuation order for northern Gaza has set off a flurry of panic, according to accounts from inside the Strip.
“This is chaos, no one understands what to do,” Inas Hamdan, an officer at the UN Palestinian refugee agency in Gaza City, tells AP, grabbing whatever she could throw into her bags as the panicked shouts of her relatives could be heard around her. She says all the UN staff in Gaza City and northern Gaza have been told to evacuate south to Rafah.
Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza City, says there is no way more than one million people could be safely moved that fast.
Forget about food, forget about electricity, forget about fuel. The only concern now is just if you’re going to make it, if you’re going to live,” Farsakh said, breaking into heaving sobs.
“What will happen to our patients?” she asked. “We have wounded, we have elderly, we have children who are in hospitals.” Farsakh said many of the medics were refusing to evacuate hospitals and abandon patients. Instead, she said, they called their colleagues to say goodbye.
Al Jazeera correspondent Safwat al-Kahlout says relatives are trying to figure out where they can even go if they move south.
“More than one million Palestinians are panicking, are confused, and they don’t have a plan, and they don’t understand what to do. Now my children are asking me, ‘Where should we go?’ I said, I don’t know.”
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Blood of Gazans is on Hamas for telling residents not to flee, IDF says.
IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari in a press conference says Hamas is responsible for any harm to civilians who do not evacuate from the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
“Hamas is taking advantage of the residents of the Gaza Strip, bringing disaster upon them and calling on the residents of the Gaza Strip at this time as well not to listen to the IDF’s recommendations,” Hagari says.
“The responsibility for what may happen to those who do not evacuate is on Hamas’s head,” he says.
Hagari says the IDF is “preparing for the next stages of the war” and that it is “prepared to operate throughout the Middle East and wherever there is a security need.”
Hagari says the military has so far notified the families of 120 hostages being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“It keeps us awake at night, and many efforts are concentrated on this matter,” Hagari says.
Referring to claims that hostages have been killed in Israeli strikes, Hagari says “There are many statements from Hamas, we will only report reliable information.”
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Gaza residents told to move south as Israel prepares for expected ground assault.
UN says Israeli military has given 1.1 million Gaza residents 24 hours to move amid warnings it could cause ‘devastating humanitarian consequences’.
Israel’s military has delivered sweeping evacuation orders for almost half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people ahead of an expected ground offensive aiming to eradicate the Hamas militant group after its unprecedented assault on Israel, UN officials said.
In Gaza, the evacuation order sent panic through civilians and aid workers already struggling under Israeli airstrikes and a blockade.
The Israeli military sent one evacuation order directly on Friday morning, warning the hundreds of thousands of civilians of Gaza City to flee further south into the Gaza Strip, a narrow coastal territory. Israel’s directive charged that 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 sent to Gaza City civilians.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary general, told multiple news outlets that UN officials working in Gaza were told by the Israel Defence Forces “that the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours”, adding that this amounts to approximately 1.1 million people.
Dujarric said the same order applied to all UN staff and those sheltered in UN facilities – including schools, health centres and clinics. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) is sheltering more than 60% of the 423,000 people displaced in recent days in the Gaza Strip.
It was not immediately clear how many people were currently located north of Wadi Gaza.
“The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” Dujarric said. “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.”
Meanwhile, in the divided city of Jerusalem, people are bracing for midday prayers at the flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque compound: Israel has barred men under 60 from entering the area, according to the Jordanian Waqf, that administers the complex’s Muslim holy sites, and rightwing Jewish groups have called on Israelis to bar Palestinians from access.
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Pentagon chief Austin in Israel for meetings with war cabinet.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has arrived in Tel Aviv to meet with senior government leaders and see firsthand some of the US weapons and security assistance that Washington rapidly delivered to Israel after a brutal assault on southern Israel by the Hamas terror group.
Austin is expected to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and the war cabinet, which includes Netanyahu, Gallant, Minister Benny Gantz, and a handful of observers.
Defense officials traveling with Austin say he wants to underscore America’s unwavering support for the people of Israel and that the United States is committed to making sure the country has what it needs to defend itself.
A senior defense official says the US has already given Israel small-diameter bombs as well as interceptor missiles for its Iron Dome system and more will be delivered. Other munitions are expected to arrive Friday.
Gallant is expected to take questions during a press conference with Austin, which would make him the first government leader to agree to be questioned since Saturday’s slaughter.
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UN to Israel. Call off Gaza evacuation.
The United Nations has urged Israel to rescind its call for 1.1 million residents of northern Gaza to relocate to the south of the territory within 24 hours.
“The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, said.
He told the AFP news agency that the UN “strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation.”
Dujarric said the army’s evacuation order applies to all UN staff and those sheltering in UN facilities —- including schools, health centers and clinics.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) is sheltering more than 60% of the 423,000 people displaced in recent days in the Gaza Strip.
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Hezbollah head Nasrallah meets with Iran foreign minister on Gaza.
Iran’s foreign minister has discussed the volatile situation in the Middle East with the leader of the Hezbollah terror group.
A Hezbollah statement says Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah met in Beirut early Friday to discuss “the Israeli aggression on Gaza and the brutal crimes committed against its people.”
There have been concerns that the Iran-backed and heavily-armed Hezbollah might join the war with Israel. Sporadic acts of violence have been reported over the past days along the tense Lebanon-Israel border.
Amirabdollahian was in Iraq on Thursday before coming to Lebanon, and he’s scheduled to head to Syria later Friday.
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Turks told to avoid southern Lebanon.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry is warning its citizens in Lebanon to stay away from the south of the country due to “developments,” as tensions heat up between Israel and the Hezbollah terror group.
“Our citizens in Lebanon are advised to be cautious and, if possible, stay away from the areas south of the Litani River,” it advises.