Israel orders the evacuation of northern Gaza, while Hamas tells Palestinians not to leave their homes

Israel has given Doctors Without Borders (MSF) two hours to evacuate the Al Awda hospital in Gaza City, the humanitarian organization said, after Friday (Thursday evening in Ecuador) The army will order the evacuation of 1.1 million Gazans from the north of the Gaza Strip to the south.

“We unequivocally condemn this action, the continued indiscriminate bloodshed and attacks on healthcare in Gaza. “We are trying to protect our staff and patients,” the NGO added in a statement.

On the Palestinian side, the Islamist militia Hamas today denounced that the Israeli army’s bombings killed 70 people seeking refuge in the south of the Gaza Strip, most of them women and children, in one of the attacks on the enclave with the highest number of deaths since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian movement.

“A new massacre committed” by Israel “against three convoys of civilians” traveling along Salahedin and Al Rashid roads, two main streets in Gaza, on their way to the southern part of the enclave, after Israeli forces today ordered the evacuation of civilians from the northern Strip and Gaza City.

At least 1,800 people have been killed and more than 6,600 injured in the enclave, while Israeli forces recently said they were “carrying out a major escalation attack” against Hamas targets.

According to Israel, many of the military operations from the enclave are carried out from Gaza City, a town of almost 600,000 inhabitants, where civilians must now leave “for their own safety” and “where they cannot return until there is a new announcement.” allows it.”” a military spokesman said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that the bombings in an address to the nation against the Gaza Strip were “just the beginning” of the response to Hamas’ bloody offensive against Israel on October 7.

The Israeli objective of the massive airstrikes on the Islamist group Hamas and its soldiers is to carry out several limited raids on Gaza territory to locate the more than 100 hostages kidnapped in last weekend’s deadly jihadist attack.

Guterres asks to cancel the evacuation

In a statement released Friday, UN Secretary Antonio Guterres said that “even wars have rules. “The situation in Gaza has fallen to a dangerous level.” In the Palestinian enclave, “the health care system is on the brink of disaster,” “morgues are overflowing” and there is “a water crisis,” he said.

“We need immediate humanitarian access to Gaza so we can bring fuel, food and water to everyone who needs it,” he said.

“We strongly request that this order be annulled to prevent what is already a tragedy from turning into a disastrous situation,” stressed Stéphane Dujarric. “Time is running out,” he warned.

Rejection of Saudi Arabia and Egypt

Egypt and Saudi Arabia today rejected Israel’s ultimatum to residents of the northern Gaza Strip to move south, a move Cairo said constituted a “serious violation of the norms of international humanitarian law.”

Likewise, he denounced that “this measure will expose the lives of more than a million Palestinian citizens and their families to the dangers of living outdoors without shelter in the face of dangerous and harsh humanitarian conditions.”

The head of Iranian diplomacy, along with his Syrian counterpart, Faisal al Miqdad, denounced that Israel and its allies continue to prevent the access of medicine and food to Gaza in order to “carry out genocide.” (JO)