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Israel has directed the massive evacuation of up to 1.1 million Palestinians from the northern Gaza Strip within the next 24 hours ahead of a possible ground invasion targeting Hamas terrorists.
The warning was first shared by the United Nations early Friday before the Israeli military sent out a public evacuation order that the international organization called “impossible.”
“Today team leaders of the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Department of Safety and Security in Gaza were informed by their liaison officers in the Israeli military that the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours,” UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told Axios.
The UN estimated roughly 1.1 million civilians — nearly half of Gaza’s entire population — would need to evacuate as a result of the directive.
Around the same time, Israel’s military released a statement ordering the hundreds of thousands of civilians living in Gaza City to head farther south into the Gaza Strip, saying Hamas terrorists were hiding in tunnels under the city.
“The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” Dujarric said.
“The United Nations strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation,” she said.
The short-notice evacuation warning came as Israel has hammered Gaza with 6,000 bombs as retribution for Hamas’ surprise attack over the weekend that claimed the lives of more than 1,300 Israelis.
Follow along with The Post’s coverage of Israel’s war with Hamas
Israel has halted deliveries of food, water, fuel and electricity to Gaza’s 2.3 million people, and
Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz said Thursday there would be no exceptions to the siege without freedom for the hostages taken by Hamas.
“No electrical switch will be turned on, no water hydrant will be opened, and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home. Humanitarian for humanitarian. And no one will preach us morals,” Katz said.
The blockade is posing a major risk for the Strip’s overwhelmed hospital systems, which are on the brink of a “humanitarian catastrophe,” the World Health Organization warned.
Israel has unrelentingly attacked and bombed the enclave since Hamas launched a surprise attack on the country and its unsuspecting civilians Saturday.
More than 1,500 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in retaliation for Hamas’ deadly weekend attack, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
Israel-Hamas war: How we got here
2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip more than three decades after winning the territory from Egypt in the Six-Day War.
2006: Terrorist group Hamas wins a Palestinian legislative election.
2007: Hamas seizes control of Gaza in a civil war.
2008: Israel launches military offensive against Gaza after Palestinian terrorists fired rockets into the town of Sderot.
2023: Hamas launches the biggest attack on Israel in 50 years, in an early-morning ambush Oct. 7, firing thousands of rockets and sending dozens of militants into Israeli towns.
Terrorists killed more than 1,200 Israelis, wounded more than 4,200, and took at least 200 hostage.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to announce, “We are at war,” and vowed Hamas would pay “a price it has never known.”
The Gaza Health Ministry — which is controlled by Hamas — reported at least 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,500 injured since the war began.
Another 338,000 Gaza residents have been displaced by the conflict, according to the UN.
At least 12 UN employees have been killed in the chaos.
With Post wires
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