Thousands flee north Gaza after Israel evacuation ultimatum
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AFP) - Thousands of Palestinians fled to southern Gaza in search of refuge Friday after Israel warned them to evacuate before an expected ground offensive against Hamas in retaliation for the deadliest attack in Israel's history.
The call to get out came six days after Hamas gunmen burst through the heavily militarised border around the Gaza Strip and killed more than 1,300 people -- most of them civilians -- in an attack compared to 9/11 in the United States.
Nearly 1,800 Gazans -- again most of them civilians and including over 580 children -- have been martyred in waves of missile strikes on the densely populated enclave, the health ministry said.
Hamas, proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and Europe, took an estimated 150 Israeli, foreign and dual-national hostages back to Gaza during its initial attack, according to Israel.
The militant group on Friday said 13 of them had been killed in Israeli air strikes. It has previously said four hostages died in bombardments, complicating any Israeli ground offensive.
Hamas has said Palestinians rejected the evacuation request yet thousands of Gazans were on the move in search of safety, carrying plastic bags of belongings, suitcases on their shoulders and children in their arms. Some walked while others drove, with belongings strapped to the roofs of their trucks, cars and carts pulled by donkeys.
More than 423,000 people have already fled their homes in the territory of 2.4 million, according to the UN, which said the evacuation order could turn "already a tragedy into a calamitous situation".
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas said it will be "tantamount to a second Nakba" or "catastrophe", referring to the 760,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes during the 1948 war that coincided with Israel's creation.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh accused Israel of committing "genocide" in Gaza. Hamas has threatened to kill captives if Israel bombs civilian targets without advance warning.
Gaza has been under a land, air and sea blockade since 2006 and Israel has vowed not to turn back on water, food and power supplies until all hostages are freed.
'Impossible'
In Gaza, UN officials said the Israeli military, whose troops are massing at the border, had told them the evacuation should be carried out "within the next 24 hours".
It later admitted it would take more time, however, and did not confirm it had set the deadline. But the United Nations described the immediate movement of some 1.1 million people -- nearly half of the 2.4 million in the Gaza Strip -- "impossible".
It urgently appealed for the order to be rescinded. Aid agencies have warned mass evacuations would stretch support to the limit, as fuel, food and water dwindled due to an Israeli blockade.
Hospitals are struggling to cope with the dead and wounded from the relentless bombardment, and the health system was already "at a breaking point", the World Health Organization said.
Ashraf al-Qudra, from the Gaza health ministry, said hospitals were "starting to lose capacity" and medicine was running out.
In Jordan, after a meeting with visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, King Abdullah II called for "humanitarian corridors" to be opened urgently. Elizabeth El-Nakla, the mother-in-law of Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf, said in a video from Gaza that he posted online that people had nowhere to go.
"One million people no food no water, and still they are bombing them as they leave. Where are we going to put them?" she said. "This will be my last video. Everybody from Gaza is moving towards where we are," added Nakla, who was visiting relatives in Gaza from Scotland. "May God help us."
