The Israel Defense Forces issued an announcement to the civilians of Gaza City to evacuate their homes and move south of the Wadi Gaza.
IDF announcement sent to civilians of Gaza City:
The IDF calls for the evacuation of all civilians of Gaza City from their homes southwards for their own safety and protection and move to the area south of the Wadi Gaza, as shown on the map.
The Hamas terrorist organization…
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 13, 2023
Read the full announcement:
IDF announcement sent to civilians of Gaza City:
The IDF calls for the evacuation of all civilians of Gaza City from their homes southwards for their own safety and protection and move to the area south of the Wadi Gaza, as shown on the map.
The Hamas terrorist organization waged a war against the State of Israel and Gaza City is an area where military operations take place. This evacuation is for your own safety.
You will be able to return to Gaza City only when another announcement permitting it is made. Do not approach the area of the security fence with the State of Israel.
Hamas terrorists are hiding in Gaza City inside tunnels underneath houses and inside buildings populated with innocent Gazan civilians.
ADVERTISEMENTCivilians of Gaza City, evacuate south for your own safety and the safety of your families and distance yourself from Hamas terrorists who are using you as human shields.
In the following days, the IDF will continue to operate significantly in Gaza City and make extensive efforts to avoid harming civilians.
The State of Israel’s official Twitter account posted this message:
Important message: We call on civilians in Northern Gaza to evacuate the area and head towards the southern area of the Gaza Strip.
Our fight is not with them.
It is with the barbaric Hamas terrorist organization and we are trying to prevent civilian casualties and to keep… pic.twitter.com/rrlMKFL4jo
— Israel ישראל (@Israel) October 13, 2023
Important message: We call on civilians in Northern Gaza to evacuate the area and head towards the southern area of the Gaza Strip.
Our fight is not with them.
It is with the barbaric Hamas terrorist organization and we are trying to prevent civilian casualties and to keep innocents out of harm’s way
“The Israeli Ministry of Defense and the IDF notified the UN just before midnight local time that Palestinians living north of Wadi Gaza should evacuate to the southern part of the Gaza Strip in the next 24 hours, according to UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric and another source with direct knowledge,” Axios reports.
In total, that’s approximately 1.1 million civilians told to evacuate their homes within 24 hours.
It remains unclear what action the Israeli military will take and if Gaza civilians receive the message and can evacuate in the given timeframe.
SCOOP: Israel tells UN to evacuate the northern Gaza Strip within 24 hours https://t.co/1gkQtZAq2R
— Axios (@axios) October 13, 2023
Per Axios:
More than 1 million Palestinians live in this area. The message could be a signal that the Israeli military is preparing for an imminent ground operation.
The sources told Axios that the IDF’s reason for the notification was in order for civilians not to be hurt by the military’s actions and operations.
“We call on all civilians in Gaza City to move south,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Friday in a press conference with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in Tel Aviv.
“We don’t want to harm them. Whoever wants to save his life should go south. Hamas is camouflaging itself inside civilian population and we are going to go in and dismantle its infrastructure,” Gallant said.
More than 1,530 Palestinians and 1,200 Israelis have been killed, thousands have been injured, and hundreds of thousands of others have been displaced since the latest fighting between Israel and Hamas began. Hamas is believed to be holding about 150 hostages in Gaza.
🚨#BREAKING: Israeli military officials have issued a warning to the United Nations, urging them to evacuate the northern Gaza Strip within the next 24 hours. They have instructed the UN to move over 1 million people in Gaza to the south within the same timeframe pic.twitter.com/Oilp6sIWqI
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) October 13, 2023
According to CBS News, the Israeli military dropped leaflets on the northern Gaza strip telling them to evacuate to its southern half.
'EVACUATE YOUR HOMES IMMEDIATELY': Thousands of leaflets rained down as the Israeli military warned residents in the north of Gaza within 24 hours.
The latest: https://t.co/AHy42AHoye pic.twitter.com/LDGHS8ev3u
— ABC News (@ABC) October 13, 2023
From CBS News:
Israeli military aircraft dropped thousands of leaflets on the northern Gaza Strip Friday warning residents in that part of the Palestinian territory to evacuate to its southern half. The Israeli military informed the United Nations late Thursday night that the entire population in northern Gaza should evacuate south almost immediately.
Stephane Dujarric, a U.N. spokesperson, told CBS News that liaison officers with the Israel Defense Forces informed the U.N. just before midnight Gaza time Thursday that the entire population north of Wadi Gaza should “relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours.”
According to the U.N., about 1.1. million people live in northern Gaza, the most densely populated part of the territory.
The U.N. “considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” Dujarric said, and it “strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation.”
The U.N. response “to Israel’s early warning to the residents of Gaza,” Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan said, was “shameful” and ignores the brutality of the attack on Israel.
Early Friday local time, the IDF ordered Gaza City’s hundreds of thousands of residents to move farther south in the Gaza Strip for their “own safety.”
According to social media posts, Hamas is telling civilians to ignore the warnings and remain in their homes.
The terrorist group reportedly is not assisting civilians evacuate.
Hamas: "We say to the citizens of northern Gaza and Gaza City, stay in your homes and places"
Hamas is not assisting Gazans to evacuate. Hamas has buses, trucks, but no, they want Gazans to die, so they can sell their lies to their gullible supporters in the West.#HamasisISIS… https://t.co/IxUUMCv2UB pic.twitter.com/5DN3PbUS8i— Imshin (@imshin) October 13, 2023
Israel has given a 24-hour deadline to over 1.1 million people to evacuate from Gaza City. The UN has warned of "devastating humanitarian consequences," already classifying Israel's total blockade of Gaza as a war crime. Humanitarian organizations, including the International Red… pic.twitter.com/Vk59kv1cqc
— red. (@redstreamnet) October 13, 2023
Newsweek added:
Aid organizations have already warned of a worsening crisis in the region after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza, including the cutting off of water, food and energy supplies.
Several have now said the mass movement was not feasible under the current circumstances, which have seen the Israeli Air Force launch intensive air strikes on targets in the Palestinian exclave after last weekend’s attacks.
Around 1,500 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants staged armed assaults on Israel on Saturday, including the killing of civilians. Israel subsequently launched its heaviest-ever airstrikes on Gaza. As of Friday, at least 1,300 people had been killed in Israel and 1,530 people killed in Gaza, according to the AP.
Some 423,000 people are thought to have been displaced by the air strikes, the U.N. said on Thursday. The IDF has been warning civilians in areas about to be hit to leave and has said Hamas houses military targets within civilian populations.
There are multiple reports of an Israeli airstrike hitting a civilian convoy heeding the warning and evacuating northern Gaza.
According to those reports, at least 70 Palestinians were killed and 200 others injured from the airstrike.
Dozens killed by Israeli attack on civilian convoy heeding evacuation orderhttps://t.co/I2hkgv7x75
— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) October 13, 2023
Israel airstrikes civilian convoy that was fleeing Gaza City on route IDF promised to allow Palestinians to evacuate.
At least 70 have been killed and 200 were injured.
Follow: @AFpost pic.twitter.com/kXSnC66hw9
— AF Post (@AFpost) October 13, 2023
Turkish-state media outlet Anadolu Ajansi reports:
At least 70 Palestinians were killed and 200 others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a convoy of displaced civilians heading from northern Gaza to south, according to the Gaza-based Interior Ministry.
Iyad Al-Buzm, an Interior Ministry spokesman, told Al Jazeera that the convoy was targeted as around 150 civilians were making their way through Salah Aldin Street in Al-Zeytoun neighborhood.
Al-Buzm said that despite Israeli calls to find refuge in the southern region of the Gaza Strip, the bombings are still heard throughout the strip.
Earlier, Israel warned Palestinians in northern Gaza to move to the south “within 24 hours.”
In a dramatic escalation of Middle East tensions, Israeli forces launched a sustained and forceful military campaign against the Gaza Strip, a response to a military offensive by the Palestinian group Hamas in Israeli territories.
Israel has dropped a staggering 6,000 bombs on Palestine's Gaza in just six days.
That almost mirrors the more than 7,000 bombs the US dropped on Afghanistan in one year, in 2019 pic.twitter.com/UPRepIHQc5
— TRT World (@trtworld) October 13, 2023
TRT World noted:
At least 70 Palestinians were killed and 200 others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a convoy of displaced civilians heading from northern Gaza to south, according to the Gaza-based Palestinian Interior Ministry.
Iyad al Buzm, an Interior Ministry spokesman, told Al Jazeera that the convoy was targeted as around 150 civilians were making their way through Salah Aldin Street in the Al Zeytoun neighbourhood.
Al Buzm said that despite Israeli calls to find refuge in the southern part of Gaza, the bombings are still heard throughout the blockaded region.
According to the Associated Press, the target of the airstrike remains unclear.
Per AP:
Hamas officials say that 70 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on convoys fleeing Gaza City.
Hamas’ media office says the cars were struck in three places as they headed south from Gaza City. It was not immediately clear who the target of the airstrikes was, or whether militants were among the passengers.
The army ordered residents to evacuate the city early Friday ahead of an expected ground invasion.
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