The Israeli military called for the evacuation of Gaza City Friday ahead of an expected ground invasion against Hamas, which controls the territory. Israel’s order calls for people living in north Gaza to move south of the Wadi Gaza area, located in the middle of the Gaza strip. Hamas, which launched the deadly incursion into Israel on Oct. 7, told residents to remain in place.
The United Nations has called for Israel to rescind the order to avoid what it calls a “horrendous” humanitarian crisis. The order would effectively give more than 1 million Palestinians, many of them impoverished, a day to flee their homes. Israel says it’s ordered the evacuation to spare civilians ahead of a ground invasion?
“This will only lead to unprecedented levels of misery and further push people in Gaza into the abyss,” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said in a statement Friday.
The U.N. says the mass evacuation orders will affect more than a million people. A total evacuation would mean the entire 2.23 million population of Gaza would have to squeeze into the southern half of the strip. Gaza, which is only 25 miles long in its entirety and just over twice the size of Washington, D.C., is the 63rd-most densely inhabited urban region in the world.
Many are also voicing uncertainty about safety anywhere in the strip if they leave their homes.
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