Hyderabad:Some 1.1 million people are stranded in the sealed off Palestinian enclave in northern Gaza and evacuating them, amid continuous bombings by Israeli forces and the proposed ground offensive, is impossible and defies the rules of war and basic humanity, humanitarians say.
On Friday, the Israel Defense Forces shared the message for evacuation to the civilians in the Gaza Strip.
"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...In the following days, the IDF will continue to operate significantly in Gaza City and make extensive efforts to avoid harming civilians," it said.
Palestinians gather around the bodies of their relatives who were killed by an Israeli airstrike, at the hospital in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. (AP) Hamas terrorists are hiding in Gaza City inside tunnels underneath houses and inside buildings populated with innocent Gazan civilians, it said, adding that hundreds of thousands of Israelis had to run from their Shabbat dinner tables to bomb shelters as sirens sound across central Israel.
Defying rules of war-UN relief chief Martin Griffiths said the order to evacuate 1.1 million from northern Gaza defies the rules of war and basic humanity.
Gaza is under intense bombardment. Roads and homes have been reduced to rubble. There is nowhere safe to go. Forcing scared and traumatized civilians, including women and children, to move from one densely populated area to another, without even a pause in the fighting and without humanitarian support is dangerous and outrageous. Without safe passage and access to basic services such mass displacement of civilians will have catastrophic humanitarian consequences and long term implications, he said.
UN Spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, had said the UN representatives in Gaza had been told by Israeli military liaison officers everyone living north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza within 24 hours.
Palestinians flee to the southern Gaza Strip after the Israeli army issued an evacuation warning to a population of over 1 million in northern Gaza and Gaza City to seek refuge in the south ahead of a possible Israeli ground invasion, Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. (AP) Impossible evacuation-According to him, some 1.1 million people would be expected to leave northern Gaza and that the same order applied to all UN staff and those sheltered in UN facilities, including schools, health centres and clinics, which UN considers “impossible” for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences and appeals for the order to be rescinded.
The head of UNRWA(UN agency for Palestine Refugees), Philippe Lazzarini, warned that the relocation order “will only lead to unprecedented levels of misery and further push people in Gaza into abyss”. He said that over 423,000 people across the enclave have already been displaced, of whom more than 270,000 have taken refuge in UNRWA shelters.
Israelis take cover as a siren sounds a warning of incoming rockets fired from the Gaza Strip in Rehovot, Israel, Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. (AP) The United Nations in Palestine calls on the Israeli Government to rescind its announcement for UN agencies and Gazans to ‘relocate to southern Gaza immediately’ without any guarantee for their safety or their return. Palestinian civilians, including women and children, are terrified, injured, and traumatized. This will cause a humanitarian tragedy that can and must be averted. This measure comes on the heels of 1,800 Palestinians being killed by Israeli airstrikes, the destruction of infrastructure, and a full siege that has deprived civilians of electricity, food, fuel, and clean water, the agency said in a statement.
Strained healthcare-WHO Spokesperson Tarik Jašarević said the health system in Gaza is at a “breaking point”. In the north of the Gaza Strip, two major hospitals - the Indonesian Hospital and Shifa Hospital- have exceeded their combined 760-bed capacity, while hospitals in the south of Gaza were also “overflowing”. Six of the seven main hospitals in Gaza are only partially functioning, he said.
An independent medical body condemned Israel for forcing evacuation of patients under their care in two hours time amid its indiscriminate attacks on Gaza.
"Israel has given Al Awda Hospital just two hours to evacuate. Our staff are still treating patients. We unequivocally condemn this action, the continued indiscriminate bloodshed and attacks on health care in Gaza. We are trying to protect our staff and patients," Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said in a statement.
The UN agencies have reiterated their calls for the immediate release of hostages held in Gaza following Hamas’s deadly Saturday attack on Israel, and for the protection of civilians and urgent aid access to the sealed-off enclave.
Even wars have rules. International humanitarian law and human rights law must be respected and upheld. Civilians must be protected and also never used as shields. All hostages in Gaza must be released immediately, UN Chief António Guterres said.
We need immediate humanitarian access throughout Gaza, so that we can get fuel, food and water to everyone in need, he added.
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