Gaza residents face forced displacement as Israel prepares for ground assault

Hundreds of hundreds of thousands of civilians in Palestine's Gaza faced forced displacement after the Israeli army asked them to relocate to the south of the besieged enclave in preparation for a potential ground offensive against Hamas.

Friday's directive came on the heels of what the United Nations said was a warning they received from Israel to relocate 1.1 million people living in the north of Gaza within 24 hours.

The narrow coastal territory is just 40 kilometres (25) miles long.

"The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) calls for the evacuation of all civilians of Gaza City from their homes southwards for their own safety and protection and move to the area south of the Wadi Gaza as shown on the map," the army said in a statement.

"In the following days, the IDF will continue to operate significantly in Gaza City and make extensive efforts to avoid harming civilians," it added.

The United Nations urged Israel to rescind its call, considering it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences," Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, said on Thursday.

He told the AFP news agency that the UN "strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation."

The UN also announced that its agency for Palestinian refugees is moving operations and foreign staff to southern Gaza, following the Israel army evacuation order.

"UNRWA relocated its central operations centre and international staff to the south to continue its humanitarian operations and support to its staff and Palestine Refugees in Gaza," the agency wrote on Twitter, rebranded X.

'This is chaos'

The Israeli military's directive, which comes on the seventh day of a war declared by Israel following an unprecedented Hamas incursion and deadly attack, directs residents of Gaza City to flee deeper south into Gaza, a narrow coastal territory.

“This is chaos, no one understands what to do,” said Inas Hamdan, an officer at the UN Palestinian refugee agency in Gaza City while she grabbed whatever she could throw into her bags as the panicked shouts of her relatives could be heard around her.

She said all the UN staff in Gaza City and northern Gaza had been told to evacuate south to Rafah.

“This evacuation is for your own safety,” the Israeli military said, in a warning it said was sent to Gaza City civilians.

Broader displacement

The flurry of directives could signal an impending ground offensive, though the Israeli military has not yet confirmed such an appeal. On Thursday it said that while it was preparing, no decision had been made.

Israel delivered an even broader order — giving almost half of tiny Gaza’s population 24 hours to flee to the territory’s south — to the UN, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The Israeli military did not immediately confirm the broader evacuation order.

The broad order for all of Gaza's north also applies to all UN staff and to the hundreds of thousands who have taken shelter in UN schools and other facilities since Israel launched round-the-clock air strikes Saturday.

“The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” Dujarric said.

“The United Nations strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation,” the spokesman said.

Panic engulfs residents

Panicked rumours of a relocation had begun to spread in north Gaza in the early morning of Friday.

A ground offensive in Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas and where the population is densely packed into a sliver of land only 40 kilometres (25 miles) long, would likely bring even higher casualties on both sides in brutal house-to-house fighting.

Hamas’ assault Saturday and smaller attacks since have killed more than 1,300 people in Israel, including 247 soldiers — a toll unseen in Israel for decades — and the ensuing Israeli bombardment has killed more than 1,530 people in Gaza, according to authorities on both sides.

Israel says roughly 1,500 Hamas fighters were killed inside Israel, and that hundreds of the dead in Gaza are Hamas members. Thousands have been wounded on both sides.