Israel asserted on Sunday that, even as Hamas has urged Palestinians to stay put in Gaza City while the IDF calls on them to evacuate, several of the terror group’s leaders have submitted requests for themselves and their family members to be allowed to exit the Strip.
Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, chief of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, posted in Arabic on Facebook about the “hypocritical attempts of senior officials in Gaza City and the Hamas terror organization to evacuate their family members to a third country through the Israeli mechanism for evacuating Gaza residents.”
On X, COGAT, a Defense Ministry body which coordinates humanitarian matters in the Gaza Strip, echoed that statement. The post did not include copies of the requests themselves, which the unit said it denied.
“In recent weeks, several requests have been submitted by senior officials for their families to leave the Gaza Strip, some of whom even requested to leave themselves, but their requests were denied by Israel,” COGAT said.
The posts from COGAT come as the IDF’s offensive to conquer Gaza City appears to be imminent. The military has been bombing high-rises in the city that it says were used by Hamas, and its troops have been fighting Hamas operatives in the city’s surroundings.
As the offensive nears, the IDF called on Palestinians last week in all areas of Gaza City to leave. Out of the estimated 1 million Palestinians there, the military said on Sunday that some 300,000 have since left for other areas of the Strip.
The reported number of evacuees is rising despite efforts by Hamas to prevent civilians from leaving. In his post, addressing Gazan civilians, Alian called it “a vile campaign against you to serve its murderous goals.”
But at the same time, several Hamas officials have sought a way out of the Strip entirely, COGAT said. Those who submitted the requests to leave and were denied, the agency said, include Muhammad Madhoun, a minister in the Hamas government, together with his family members; the family of Isma’il al-Ashqar, head of Hamas’s Foreign Affairs and Security Committee; and the family of Alaa a-Din Bata, head of a Hamas government committee.
In addition, COGAT said that Gaza City Council member Anwar Atallah left the Gaza Strip two weeks ago with his family to an unnamed country via Jordan, “with the approval of the defense establishment.”
Alongside the evacuation effort, the IDF has continued to battle Hamas operatives around Gaza City. In a recent operation nearby, in Beit Hanoun in the far north of the Gaza Strip, the IDF and Shin Bet said at least 11 Hamas operatives were killed inside the terror group’s tunnels.
In August, the IDF declared that Hamas’s Beit Hanoun Battalion had been defeated after the final remaining gunmen there were either killed or surrendered to troops. But Sunday’s announcement indicated that several operatives had either returned to the area or were previously undiscovered.
The IDF said that last week, troops of the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade, alongside Shin Bet forces, set out to locate the Hamas operatives who were still in Beit Hanoun. The operation focused on the kasbah, or fortified quarter of Beit Hanoun, following indications that the operatives were holed up there.
As part of the operation, the IDF said ground troops directed an Israeli Air Force drone to strike several sites in Beit Hanoun, including tunnel shafts and a “significant” underground route. So far, according to the military, the bodies of 11 Hamas operatives have been discovered inside the tunnels, including field commanders.
Referencing the fighting, Alian urged civilians to leave the area, as he said Hamas’s local leaders were trying to do.
“While the Hamas terrorist organization calls on you, the residents of Gaza City, not to move south, its operatives fear for their own lives and are seeking to leave the Gaza Strip,” Alian wrote on Facebook. “They are using you as human shields while looking out for their own interests.”
“Hamas’s hypocrisy is blatant,” he continued. “While its operatives try to flee the Strip with their families, the murderous organization abandons you, the residents of Gaza, and exerts psychological terror on you to remain in Gaza City as human shields.”