Palestine slams IOF call to evacuate Gaza south as 'fake propaganda'
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UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric says the Israeli warning is impossible to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences.
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Palestinians leave al-Karamah neighbourhood in Gaza City on 11 October 2023. (AFP)
The Israeli occupation military informed the United Nations early Friday that approximately 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza must move to the southern part of the Gaza Strip within the next 24 hours.
"Today, just before midnight local time, team leaders of the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Department of Safety and Security in Gaza were informed by their liaison officers in the Israeli military that the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours," UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told Axios.
Dujarric pointed out that "this amounts to approximately 1.1 million people. The same order applied to all UN staff and those sheltered in UN facilities – including schools, health centers and clinics."
The news website suggested that "the message could be a signal that the Israeli military is preparing for an imminent ground operation" in the Strip.
"The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences," Dujarric said in a statement.
He continued, "The United Nations strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation."
In response, the Israeli occupation's envoy to the UN, Gilad Erdan, considered the international body's statement to be shameful.
Meanwhile, Reuters cited Salama Marouf, head of the Hamas government media office, as saying that the relocation warning was an Israeli attempt "to broadcast and pass on fake propaganda, aiming to sow confusion among citizens and harm our internal cohesion."
Marouf urged the Palestinian people "not to engage in these attempts."
On its part, the Ministry of Interior in Gazan called on citizens not to respond to audio recordings circulated randomly by the Israeli occupation, slamming them as psychological warfare aimed at striking the home front and displacing citizens forcefully.
Nonetheless, Al Mayadeen's correspondent reported that there is no official report about the relocation of residents of the northern Gaza Strip southward.
Earlier, the Ministry of Health in Gaza reported the martyrdom of 1,537 Palestinians and the injury of 6,612 others since the beginning of the brutal Israeli aggression on the besieged Strip.
A video circulating on social media shows the brutal and ruthless bombing of #Gaza now amid an excruciating siege imposed on the Strip leaving Gazans without food, water, and electricity. #PalestineUnderAttack #GazaUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/Ta9sw2dpPl
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) October 13, 2023
More than 423,000 people have now been forced out of the Gaza Strip, the United Nations said, as heavy Israeli bombardments continue to hit the Strip, razing houses to the ground and committing massacres against the Palestinian people.
As of late Thursday, the number of displaced people in Gaza had risen by an additional 84,444 people and reached 423,378, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in a statement sent on Friday.
Read more: Israeli bombing of Gaza surpasses US yearly bombings of Afghanistan
