Israeli military extends evacuation order to whole of Gaza City
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/10/middleeast/idf-evacuation-gaza-city-intl-latam/index.html
Rescuers stand on the rubble of destroyed buildings following Israeli bombardment near to the Great Omari Mosque in the Old City of Gaza City
The Israeli military has expanded its evacuation order to the whole of Gaza City after sending tens of thousands of Palestinians fleeing from several of the city’s neighborhoods earlier this week.
It has also issued a notice saying it will be suspending inspections along two roads in Gaza City to allow civilians to reach humanitarian zones more easily and quickly as the city “will remain a dangerous combat zone.”
“We announce to you that Tariq Bin Ziyad and Omar Al-Mukhtar Streets are considered safe passages to cross west to Al-Rashid (Al-Bahr) Street and from there south. Al-Wahda and Khalil Al-Wazir streets are considered safe passages to cross east to the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood and the city roundabout, and from there to Salah Al-Din Street to the south,” an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) flier dropped on the city says.
Gaza City experienced shelling overnight. A local journalist told CNN the building he was sheltering in has been struck and he is now forced to move with his family once more.
Gaza’s Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told CNN he was aware of dozens of deaths in the industrial zone, east of Gaza City, and the financial hub in the center. Bassal added that several Palestinians are besieged in the Jordanian hospital and at Al-Aqsa University in the city, as the situation remains dangerous.
“Today, suddenly, all bakeries in Gaza are completely closed. It seems that there are instructions for them to do so, or that they fall in the red zone,” he added.
Gaza interior ministry warns Palestinians in Gaza City against fleeing southwards
Gaza’s interior ministry has called on residents in Gaza City to refrain from following Israeli evacuation orders, saying the instructions are a part of the Israeli army’s psychological warfare against Palestinians.
The residents were directed to head to a “humanitarian zone” located in al-Mawasi, an area on the southern end of the Gaza Strip that has previously come under attack by the Israeli army.
The ministry said so-called safe corridors are, in fact, “death corridors” and those who flee will likely be killed. In previous evacuation orders, Palestinians were shot and arrested when they attempted to move southwards via Salah al-Din, a road stretching across the length of Gaza.
It urged residents to flee to areas nearby instead of attempting to leave to the south of the enclave.
The latest evacuation order comes as the Israeli army continues to intensify its attacks on Gaza City.
Palestinians are ‘trapped’
We have been reading a lot of (social media) posts by Palestinians who are trapped in Gaza City, where some people mentioned that their family members were killed in front of their eyes – executed while trying to evacuate to a safe area or a safe place.
They also said that Israeli forces suddenly invaded their houses and started executing them. The snipers were everywhere, quadcopters were everywhere. So Palestinians were left helpless, not knowing where to go.
And let me also remind you that there are no civil defence teams, and there’s no Red Cross. No one is there to evacuate those Palestinians. So now Palestinians are trapped. If they try to evacuate and listen to Israel’s order, they’re being killed.
As leaflets are dropped on Gaza City, ‘mixed messaging from the Israeli army'
The Israeli military around 9am [local time; 06:00 GMT] released a statement saying that they’re continuing operations in northern Gaza, specifically in Gaza City. They said that they created “safe corridors” for Palestinians to evacuate from there as they had “targeted operations” in northern Gaza.
But the leaflets that were dropped in the north clearly say, ‘To the residents of Gaza City in its entirety’ on the map and it maps them out, telling them where to go, where these so-called “safe passages and corridors” are, heading south to Deir el-Balah.
This is a second time a notice like this has been dropped on Gaza City. Previously, it was in October. But now we’re hearing from Israeli military sources that this was not, in fact, an evacuation order for all of Gaza City, but rather specific areas where the Israeli army is operating.
Now, let’s talk about what the Interior Ministry in Gaza is saying. They’re saying that if anyone is in any immediate danger to go to an area that is perhaps less dangerous, but they’re stressing that there is still no safe place for Palestinians in Gaza. Time and time again, these Palestinians have been displaced with simply nowhere to go. The Israeli army [is] continuously dropping these leaflets with several evacuation orders to go to designated safe areas that we have seen repeatedly bombarded in the last nine months.
In addition to that, at the end of [the leaflet], it says that Gaza City is a dangerous combat zone and no one should be there anyway. So mixed messaging from the Israeli army.
