Israel’s military ordered today an unprecedented evacuation of one million Palestinians from the northern Gaza Strip to the south of the territory, effectively moving half the Strip’s population south of a line marked by the Gaza wadi, leaving Gaza City itself to the north in the face of what looks like an imminent ground operation to fight Hamas militants house by house.
The evacuation order, for which Israel dropped leaflets from the air, sparked panic among the civilian population of the Strip and among the emergency and humanitarian services themselves, who are trying to assist a population that has been living for days under a total blockade with constant bombardment by the Israeli army, without food, water or electricity after the siege decreed by Israel. “Forget the food, forget the electricity, forget the fuel… The only concern now is whether you are going to make it, whether you are going to survive,” said Nebal Farsakh, the Palestinian Red Crescent spokesperson in Gaza City, in tears.
The United Nations, caught by surprise by Israel’s announcement, has described the order as “impossible to implement”, warning that a mass movement of more than a million people from northern Gaza to the south will cause a humanitarian disaster and calamity, and that it is impossible to carry out with guarantees of assistance for the civilian population. “The United Nations considers it impossible that such a movement could take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ spokesperson warned in a stark statement.
Hamas, which controls the Strip and triggered Israel’s declaration of war after a brutal surprise attack on Israeli territory a week ago, said Israel’s order was nothing more than “fake news” and a ploy, and called on Palestinians to stay in their homes. By now, the conflict has claimed 2,800 lives on both sides in less than seven days, the vast majority of them civilians, and threatens to spread across the Middle East after in recent days Hezbollah militias launched several attacks on northern Israel from southern Lebanon.
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Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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