Israel told the UN that Palestinians in North Gaza must evacuate to southern Gaza in 24 hours, signifying that a ground assault could begin sometime today.
Here’s more via Axios:
The Israeli Ministry of Defense and the IDF notified the UN just before midnight local time that Palestinians living north of Wadi Gaza should evacuate to the southern part of the Gaza Strip in the next 24 hours, according to UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric and another source with direct knowledge.
Dujarric told Axios: “Today, just before midnight local time, 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.
“This amounts to approximately 1.1 million people. The same order applied to all UN staff and those sheltered in UN facilities – including schools, health centers and clinics,” Dujarric said.
“The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” Dujarric added.
“The United Nations strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation.”
Israel is clearly trying to avoid unnecessary civilian deaths in Gaza. They’ve made clear that their only goal is the elimination of Hamas.
Meanwhile, Hamas is telling the Palestinian residents not to evacuate, to stay in northern Gaza:
Eyad Al-Bozom, spokesman for the Hamas Interior Ministry, urged Arabs everywhere and especially in countries that have borders with Israel to support the people of Gaza.
“We tell the people of northern Gaza and from Gaza City, stay put in your homes, and your places. By carrying out massacres against the civilians, the occupation wants to displace us once again from our land,” he said.
“The 1948 displacement will not happen. We will die and we will not leave,” Bozom said at a news conference held in Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
Hamas obviously doesn’t want Israel to invade Gaza and they are hoping that, by telling residents to stay put, Israel will be forced to just do airstrikes. And if Israel decides to invade, regardless of Palestinians still being there, they hope the international pressure on Israel due to civilian deaths will be too immense for them to continue.
One other point. Egypt still refuses to open the Rafah border crossing and I think two things are clear from this. Egypt doesn’t want to get involved in this war and, given how much President El-Sisi hates the Muslim brotherhood, he doesn’t want these Palestinians in Egypt.
Lastly, speaking of the UN….