Israeli military orders northern Gaza residents to evacuate south
The Israeli military has ordered all residents of northern Gaza to evacuate to the south of the densely populated enclave, a move that will raise fears of an imminent ground offensive in the war against Hamas.
The United Nations said it had been told that the warning, which it said covered some 1.1 million people, needed to be carried out within 24 hours. It was “impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” said Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the U.N. secretary-general.
The order, which includes Gaza City, was delivered in order to “minimize the damage to civilians,”, Israel Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said in a video livestream. He did not provide a timeframe for the order to be carried out.