Mohammed Dawoud had already been sheltering in a UN-run school in Gaza City for days when news began to spread through the crowded classrooms that Israel had called for a broader evacuation to the south of the enclave.
Phone lines were patchy, the power was out and air strikes were thundering all around. In any case, the 31-year-old had two adult brothers with cerebral palsy to consider.
The UN said on Friday the Israeli military had told its staff on the ground that all residents of northern Gaza – roughly half the territory’s population of over 2 million – had until midnight to relocate south. It called the task “impossible.” Israel’s military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said on Saturday that it had observed a “significant movement of Palestinians toward the south” following the warning.
Even before Israel called on civilians to leave Gaza City, the main population centre, ahead of planned operations against Hamas, residents were running out of places to go.
More than 270,000 Palestinians had, like Dawoud, sought shelter in about 90 schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
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