The Israeli army announced on Saturday that it had designated two routes for Gaza City residents to leave the city south for limited hours, something the United Nations described as a “crime against humanity.”
The Israeli army’s move came without declaring a ceasefire at this stage, a day after it bombed a convoy of displaced people, killing more than 70 people, most of them women and children, according to Palestinian sources.
The Israeli army said in a statement that it would allow Gaza City residents to head towards the Gaza Valley area to the south, via Salah al-Din and al-Bahr Streets.
The deadline that the army gave to residents of the northern Gaza Strip to leave within 24 hours expired this morning.
The United Nations announced on Saturday that “more than 1,300 buildings were destroyed in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israeli strikes.”
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An army spokesman said in a video briefing early Saturday: “We witnessed a huge movement of Palestinian civilians towards the south.”
He did not mention the deadline and did not make room for questions, according to Reuters.
“Friday massacre”
The official Palestinian News Agency, Wafa, reported on Friday that “Israeli warplanes killed 70 Palestinians and wounded about 200 on Friday, in a new massacre committed by the Israeli occupation forces against displaced citizens in Gaza City.”
Local sources reported that “the occupation forces targeted three convoys of citizens in different locations on Salah al-Din and al-Rashid Streets, who were trying to reach the south of Wadi Gaza.”
It was reported that the majority of the victims were women and children.
Tens of thousands were displaced
It is estimated that tens of thousands of Palestinians headed south from northern Gaza following the Israeli order, according to the United Nations, which said more than 400,000 Palestinians were internally displaced by hostilities before the directive.
But many others said they would stay.
“It is better to die than to leave,” Muhammad (20 years old) said outside a building destroyed by an Israeli air strike near central Gaza.
Mosques issue calls saying, “Hold on to your homes, hold on to your land,” according to “Reuters.”
The United Nations and other organizations warned of a catastrophe if such a large number of people were forced to flee, and said that the blockade should be lifted to allow aid to enter.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, said on Friday: “We need immediate humanitarian access to all parts of Gaza, so that we can deliver fuel, food and water to everyone who needs it. Even wars have rules.”
The Israeli army orders civilians to evacuate northern Gaza and head south
“Crime against humanity”
The UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, Paola Gaviria Bettencourt, said in a statement: “We are horrified by the idea of adding one million Palestinians to the 423,000 people who have already been removed from their homes due to the violence that occurred last week.”
She added: “It is unbelievable that more than half of Gaza’s population can pass through an active war zone without devastating humanitarian consequences, especially as they are deprived of basic goods and services,” according to Agence France-Presse.
Bettencourt recalled that “forced population displacement constitutes a crime against humanity, and collective punishment is prohibited under international humanitarian legislation.”
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2023-10-14 07:52:21
