Israel issues new warnings to Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza

Palestinians carry a person injured in an Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday as Israeli Defense Forces prepared for an imminent ground attack in the northern section of the enclave. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 14 (UPI) — Israel on Saturday gave Palestinians living in the northern Gaza Strip a six-hour window to use safe corridors to evacuate the area before an expected ground invasion as the United States urged protection for civilians.

Israel Defense Forces instructed residents to flee to the southern part of the enclave using designated evacuation corridors between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. in a message posted to social media in Arabic.

“If you care about yourself and your loved ones, go south as instructed,” the IDF wrote. “Rest assured that Hamas leaders have taken care of themselves and are taking cover from strikes in the region.”

Israel forces are preparing for the “next stages” of the war and will attack the Hamas rulers of the Gaza enclave “with great force,” IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Saturday at a press briefing, again urging Palestinian civilians to flee region as the war entered its eighth day.

The United Nations reported that more than 400,000 Palestinians have already fled northern Gaza in the wake of a massive Israeli aerial bombardment in retaliation for last week’s unprecedented surprise attack by Hamas which killed more than 1,300 Israelis.

The Gaza Health Ministry said in an update Saturday that 2,215 Palestinians have been killed and more than 8,700 others have been wounded in the Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip since fighting began a week ago.

Hagari said those who remained in northern Gaza needed to heed warnings issued by the IDF that it will soon send ground forces into the area.

“There are still citizens who have not yet evacuated,” he said. “Anyone who chooses not to evacuate puts himself and his family in danger. We will attack with great force in the areas that have been evacuated.”

As Israel massed forces around Gaza, the planned ground assault appeared to receive a green light from the United States, which urged that every effort be taken to protect civilian lives.

“Israel has the right — indeed, it has the obligation — to defend its people and to try to ensure that Hamas can never repeat what it’s done,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said before a meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani late on Friday in Doha.

“We continue to discuss with Israel the importance of taking every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians. We recognize that many Palestinian families in Gaza are suffering through no fault of their own, and that Palestinian civilians have lost their lives.

“We mourn the loss of every innocent life — Israeli, Palestinian, Jew, Christian, Muslim, as well as civilians of every faith and every nationality who’ve been killed.”

At the same time, Blinken reiterated that Washington will “ensure that [Israel] has what it needs to defend its people,” and, in apparent warning to the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah, noted that he and Al Thani discussed “our efforts to prevent any actor — state or non-state — from creating a new front in this conflict.”

The United States and Qatar, he said, are working “intensively together” to secure the release of hundreds of hostages held by Hamas, including American citizens being held captive in Gaza.

The evacuation orders prompted protests from critics around the world who called it unreasonable and a violation of human rights.

“Moving more than 1 million people across a densely populated warzone to a place with no food, water, or accommodation, when the entire territory of Gaza is under siege, is extremely dangerous — and in some cases, simply not possible,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres declared in a social media statement.

The evacuation order “cannot be considered an effective warning and may amount to forced displacement of the civilian population, a violation of international humanitarian law,” the human rights group Amnesty International said.

The roads in northern Gaza have been severely damaged by Israeli air strikes, there is no public transportation available, and fuel is scarce due to the tightening of the existing blockade, Amnesty declared.