Israeli military evacuation order triggers panic in Gaza City

CAIRO/GAZA: Palestinians living in the ruins of Gaza City were bombarded with Israeli leaflets on Tuesday ordering them out, after Israel said it was about to obliterate the area in an assault to wipe out Hamas, causing panic and confusion.

Hamas’ armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, on Tuesday claimed responsibility for a shooting that killed six people on the outskirts of Jerusalem the previous day.

Israel said it would demolish homes of residents of the attackers’ villages in the occupied West Bank.

Residents of Gaza City, home to a million Palestinians before the war, have been expecting an onslaught for weeks, since the Israeli government devised a plan to deal Hamas a fatal blow in what it says are the group’s last strongholds.

“I say to the residents of Gaza, take this opportunity and listen to me carefully: you have been warned — get out of there!” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

The Israeli military airdropped leaflets with evacuation orders on residents standing amid the rubble, who say there is no safe place to go. Some said they would have no choice but to leave for the south, but many said they would stay and there were no immediate signs of a mass exodus.

Anxiety was spreading through a tent area in Gaza City housing displaced cancer patients.

“There’s no place left, not in the south, nor the north, nothing. We’ve become completely trapped,” said Bajess al-Khaldi, one of a group of displaced cancer patients housed in a tented area, as people looked on at the rubble of several buildings destroyed in an Israeli attack.

Displacement is a profound issue for Palestinians who fear that Netanyahu and his far-right allies in government want a repeat of the “Nakba”, or “catastrophe”, when hundreds of thousands of people fled or were driven out during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel’s creation.

Israel has been accused of genocide, including this month by the world’s biggest group of genocide scholars, over its nearly two-year campaign in the Palestinian enclave that has killed more than 64,000 people according to local authorities.

Israel rejects the accusation, citing its right to self-defence following the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas militants that killed 1,200 people and resulted in the capture of 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures.

The health authorities in Gaza announced they would not evacuate Gaza City’s two main operational hospitals, Al Shifa and Al Ahli, adding that doctors would not leave patients unattended.

Most Gazans have already been displaced several times since the war started, much of the territory lies in ruins and a hunger crisis has grown far worse in recent months.

The Israeli military has instructed residents in Gaza City to move to a designated “humanitarian zone” in the already overcrowded Al-Mawasi area along the coast in the south, where thousands of Palestinians have already been sheltering in tents. Israel has also regularly bombed the south.

Um Samed, a 59-year-old mother of five, said the choice now was whether “to stay and die at home in Gaza City, or follow Israel’s orders and leave Gaza and die in the south”.

‘HURRICANE’
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Monday the military would unleash a “mighty hurricane” that would destroy Gaza if Hamas did not free the last hostages it holds and surrender.

Israel has called up tens of thousands of reservists for a ground operation. Netanyahu said Israeli forces were organising and assembling into Gaza City.

The full-scale operation is not yet expected to start in the coming week, and no new advance by tanks to deepen the ground offensive was reported so far on Tuesday.

Israeli forces have been operating on Gaza City’s outskirts since last month, and the military said it was in control of 40% of the city already.

Launching the new Israeli assault could complicate ceasefire efforts to end the nearly two-year war. Hopes had been pinned on mediation efforts to reach a ceasefire that would avert Israel’s plan.

International critics say Israel’s Gaza plan, which includes demilitarising the whole strip as Israel takes security control, could worsen the humanitarian plight of the 2.2 million Palestinians who live there.

The Gaza City assault plan has provoked concern inside Israel, where public support for the war has wavered. Israel’s military leadership has warned Netanyahu against expanding the war, according to Israeli officials. Families of Israeli hostages and their supporters fear the attack could endanger the captives.

Netanyahu says he is acting out of Israel’s interest by moving to finish off Hamas in order to safeguard his country against any more attacks.