The United Nations has branded the Israeli evacuation order
for more than one million Gaza residents to head to the southern Gaza Strip as
horrendous and says the small enclave was rapidly becoming a hellhole.
The UN
Palestinian refugee agency has hit out at Israel's order, saying, "This
will only lead to unprecedented levels of misery and further push people in
Gaza into abyss," General Philippe Lazzarini, its commissioner, said.
"The scale and speed of the unfolding humanitarian
crisis is bone-chilling. Gaza is fast becoming a hellhole and is on the brink
of collapse.
"There is no exception, all parties must uphold the
laws of war; humanitarian assistance must be provided at all times to
civilians," Lazzarini remarked.
The UN says it is not possible for everyone in north Gaza to
leave.
The
Israeli occupation had ordered 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza to flee from
their homes in the north and move south. The question is where to? There is no
safe place in Gaza.
This is the most densely populated place on the Earth - more
than 2.2 million people live in a strip of land that's 40 kilometers
long.
Gaza City in the north is a major urban city. It can't be
emptied out.
Palestinians
can't leave the Gaza Strip because the Israeli occupation regime controls
almost all its exit points and they are trapped inside. It's been that way for
17 years.
In a statement, the United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths
has said that "Gaza was under intense bombardment" and "roads
and homes have been reduced to rubble."
"Forcing
scared and traumatized civilians, including women and children, to move from
one densely populated area to another, without even a pause in the fighting and
without humanitarian support, is dangerous and outrageous," he added.
Egypt controls the southern Rafah border crossing and it is
also closed. Egypt has rejected calls from the Israeli army for Gaza's
northern residents to flee south.
Its foreign ministry has called the measure a grave
violation of international humanitarian law, exposing more than one million
people to danger.
Earlier this week, Egyptian authorities rejected an Israeli
recommendation that Palestinians fleeing its air strikes should cross the
southern border into Egypt.
Despite
authorities in Gaza warning of an Israeli plot to occupy the northern part of
the territory and called on residents to stay steadfast, those who have
traveled south have been killed by Israeli airstrikes anyway.
Reflecting the cruelty of the regime, it gave a hospital in
Gaza "just two hours to evacuate" on Friday, a humanitarian
organization said.
MSF International said Al Awda Hospital has been told to
evacuate staff and patients by the country.
"Our staff is still treating patients," it said in
a statement posted on social media.
"We unequivocally condemn this action, the continued
indiscriminate bloodshed and attacks on health care in Gaza.
"We are trying to protect our staff and
patients."
There
is only one major highway bridge over a small river that Israel is ordering
more than one million people to cross, which in reality is practically
impossible to do.
The Norwegian Refugee Council, which works in occupied
Palestine, has described Israel’s demand that 1.2 million people in Gaza
leave their homes as a war crime.
Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee
Council, has released the following statement:
“The Israeli military demand that 1.2 million civilians in
northern Gaza relocate to its south within 24 hours, absent of any
guarantees of safety or return, would amount to the war crime of forcible
transfer. It must be reversed.
“The collective punishment of countless civilians, among
them children, women, and the elderly ... is illegal under international law.
“My colleagues inside Gaza confirm that there are
countless people in the northern parts who have no means to safely
relocate under the constant barrage of fire.
“The loss of civilian lives caused by deliberate or
indiscriminate use of force is a war crime for which the perpetrators will have
to answer. We fear that Israel may claim that Palestinians who could not
flee northern Gaza can be erroneously held as directly participating in
hostilities, and targeted.
“The
United States, the UK, the European Union, and other Western and Arab Nations
who have influence over the Israeli political and military leadership must
demand that the illegal and impossible order to relocate is immediately
rescinded.”
Oxfam International has made similar accusations
against the regime.
"The world can see that this evacuation order is both
utterly inhumane and impossible; the Israeli government must rescind it
immediately. We implore the international community to use its utmost influence
to intervene - there are hospitals full of patients, women, children and
elderly people who cannot move. Even for those who could move, there is no
food, no water and little shelter. This must be stopped," the charity
group said.
TURKEY
Turkey has branded Israel's merciless 24-hour deadline a grave
mistake.
The Turkish foreign ministry has said it is completely
unacceptable for Israel to order people in the north of Gaza to move south
within 24 hours.
The warning, issued by Israel as it prepares for a ground
offensive, was inhumane and violated international law, Turkey's foreign
ministry said.
"Forcing the 2.5 million people of Gaza - who have been
subjected to indiscriminate bombing for days and who have been deprived of
electricity, water and food - to migrate in an extremely limited area is a
clear violation of international law and has no place in humanity," it
said.
"We expect Israel to immediately reverse this grave
mistake and urgently halt its merciless... acts against civilians in
Gaza."
Airstrikes have been carried out all over Gaza. From refugee
camps in the north like Jabalyia to central Deir al Baha and south to Rafah, no
part of Gaza has been spared from Israeli attack.
The regime has not provided any detail about how hundreds of
thousands of traumatized Palestinians, the sick, the elderly and children are
meant to travel, what road to take or where to go.
Gazans are stressed, sleep-deprived and exhausted. Many will
be hungry and weak from the last eight days of a relentless bombing campaign.
Roads are bombed, whole neighborhoods wiped out, there's a
constant threat of air attack.
Warning people in some areas of the tiny besieged enclave to
get out ahead of an imminent ground invasion is a common Israeli military
practice in its recurrent wars on Gaza.
Sometimes the Israeli military drops leaflets in
neighborhoods ahead of a bombardment - as they did on Friday. They are also
known to call the owner of a house to get out before they bomb it.
None of these measures have been undertaken under the
current cycle of Israeli bombardment, which has been unprecedented.
With no way to get out and nowhere to go, Israeli demands to
empty north Gaza is aimed at terrifying the Palestinians.
Authorities in Gaza have said the Israeli demands are a
propaganda campaign and have called on Gaza's residents to stay put.
They
say Israel wants to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip like its ethnic cleansing
in 1948. This time, authorities warn, invaders also intend to eventually
replace the emptied land with Israeli settlements.
Amid the international outcry, the US, Israel’s staunchest
ally, has been under heavy pressure to react.
The White House has been forced to issue a response to the
Israeli demands.
This is a tall order, White House national security
spokesman John Kirby says.
"That is a lot of people to move in a very short period
of time," he said in an interview on MSNBC.
Kirby
tried to somehow justify Israeli war crime by saying "we understand what
they're trying to do and why they're trying to do this - to try to isolate the
civilian population from Hamas, which is their real target."
Critics argue the real Israeli target is the entire
population of Gaza which the regime wants to cleanse ethnically.
RUSSIA
Putin says civilian losses from an Israeli ground operation
would be unacceptable
Speaking during a visit to Bishkek, the capital of
Kyrgyzstan, Putin said, "Israel is replying on a large scale and also with
quite cruel methods."
"In my view it is unacceptable," Putin said. “More
than 2 million people live there ... all of them have to suffer, including
women and children. Of course, it’s hard for anyone to agree with this.”
Russian
president has called on the Israeli regime not to go ahead with a ground
operation in Gaza.
Putin said such an operation would result in an "absolutely
unacceptable" level of civilian casualties.
The
Russian president added that there had been unacceptable calls in the US for a blockade
of Gaza on a par with the siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany in the Second
World War.
CHINA
Earlier on Friday, the regime's foreign ministry expressed deep
disappointment with China’s lack of condemnation of Hamas’s attack on Israel.
China has historically supported the Palestinian cause, but
in recent months Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed for
closer ties with Beijing.
Since
the latest conflict broke out, China has called for a two-state solution but
has resisted Western calls for Beijing to condemn Hamas.
