Called ‘Tzahal’ in Hebrew, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Friday morning asked Gazans to move from the north to the south and south of the Gaza river indicating that the northern part which includes the thickly-populated Gaza city will bear the brunt of the expected Israeli ground assault.
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus said in an audio-visual presentation: “The IDF 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… This evacuation is for your own safety. You will be able to return to Gaza City only when another announcement permitting it is made.”
“Hamas terrorists are hiding in Gaza City inside tunnels underneath houses and inside buildings populated with innocent Gazan civilians… In the following days, the IDF will continue to operate significantly in Gaza City and make extensive efforts to avoid harming civilians,” he added.
The IDF consists of the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and the Israeli Navy.
More than half of Gaza Strip’s 23 lakh population stays in the area where the evacuation order has been issued.
Meanwhile, the UN has requested Israel to rescind the evacuation order saying it would be “impossible” to implement it in a short time.
Various reports have quoted Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general: “The UN considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences.”
The Gaza-headquartered UN’s relief agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) has already moved its headquarters to the south.
The IDF declaration follows a massive bombing operation in the six days since October 7 when a meticulously-planned assault by hundreds of heavily-armed Hamas fighters attacked Israel from land, air and sea.
A shocked and surprised IDF hit back with its fighter aircraft and 150 mm artillery guns bombarding the narrow Gaza Strip with about 6,000 bombs totaling about 4,000 tons explosives with a 150mm artillery shell whistling off to the Gaza Strip every 30 seconds.
For the sake of comparison, in 2019, the US dropped 7,423 bombs and other munitions while fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan—the most in a year.
Till 11:30 am (2 pm IST) on Friday morning, the IDF reported more than 1,300 Israeli deaths and more than 3,200 wounded while 120 families of hostages had been informed.
The total number of targets struck in Gaza was 2,687, while the number of rockets fired from Gaza by Hamas and others totaled more than 6,000. According to the Palestinian health ministry update on Thursday, 1,537 Palestinians had been killed in the Israeli attack since October 7. The dead included 500 children and 2,760 women. The total wounded comprised 6,612 citizens including 1,644 children and 1,005 women.
About 13 Israeli and foreign hostages were reported to have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza in the past 24 hours, militant group Hamas said on Friday.
Meanwhile, on Friday, Hamas rocket attacks continued in Ashkelon and its surrounding areas. While the intensity of the attacks had significantly reduced, several clashes between Hezbollah and IDF were reported from the West Bank area.
It may be so that Hamas may be trying to store its rocket arsenal after a continuous barrage since Saturday.
But a report quoting the Hamas-affiliated al-Qassam commander said his brigade “bombed enemy crowds east of Beiri with a missile attack… The enemy is too weak and cowardly to expel our people from their homes twice.”
“Since this morning, we have directed 150 rockets at Ashkelon and 50 rockets at Sderot and bombed Ben Gurion Airport,” it said.