13/10/23, 11:40 U.N.

Urges Israel to Rescind Gaza Evacuation Demand - WSJ

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https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/u-n-urges-israel-to-rescind-gaza-evacuation-order-81d2947

U.N. Urges Israel to Rescind Gaza Evacuation

Demand
Humanitarian groups warn relocation of more than a million people to enclave’s south
would be devastating for civilians
By Chao Deng Follow , Gordon Lubold Follow and Fatima Abdulkarim
Updated Oct. 13, 2023 10:27 am ET

TEL AVIV—The United Nations and humanitarian groups asked Israel to reconsider its demand that civilians in Gaza move to the south of
the strip to avoid getting caught up in its offensive against Hamas militants, warning that such an evacuation would have devastating
consequences for more than one million people.

Early Friday, Israel’s military said it had sent a message, along with a map, to people in Gaza City that they should leave the densely
populated area because military operations would take place there. Israel has been massing troops at its southern border with Gaza, in
preparation for a potential ground invasion.

“You must evacuate your homes immediately and go to the south of Wadi Gaza,” the message distributed through leaflets dropped over
Gaza City read, referring to a valley that crosses the strip roughly 4 miles south of the city center.

Locations targeted by Israeli strikes Border crossings

Population density
Low High

SYRIA

Area of detail WEST BANK Erez

crossing
Jabalia
ISRAEL refugee
JORDAN Al-Furqan camp Beit
Hanoun
EGYPT Rimal
Roots Hotel
Gaza City
boundary
Shuja'iyya

Al Zahra

Mediterranean Sea

GAZA STRIP Wadi Gaza

Netivot

ISRAEL

Khan Younis

Rafah
border
crossing

Karem Shalom (goods only)

EGYPT

Sources: European Commission (population density); U.N. (crossings); Israel Defense Forces, staff reports (strikes)

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13/10/23, 11:40 U.N. Urges Israel to Rescind Gaza Evacuation Demand - WSJ

The Israeli military didn’t specify a time frame, and military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said early Friday that it understood “this will
take time.” But the U.N. said that Israeli officers had informed its staff of the announcement just before midnight local time that the
relocation should happen within 24 hours.

A U.N. spokesman in New York estimated that there are 1.1 million people in northern Gaza—about half of the strip’s total population—and
urged Israel to rescind its announcement to avoid “a calamitous situation.”

Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since 2007, told civilians to stay in their homes and not heed the Israeli military’s evacuation call.

Israeli authorities have vowed to take out Hamas’s military capabilities completely, after the group attacked Israel over the weekend,
killing 1,300 Israelis. The Israeli Air Force said it has dropped about 6,000 bombs targeted at Hamas in Gaza since the war began.

About 1,500 Palestinians have already been killed and more than 6,600 wounded, as Israel’s military strikes Gaza by air, turning entire
buildings to rubble, according to the health authority in the strip. Nearly half of the dead are women and children.

More than 420,000 people in Gaza have fled their homes, with a little more than half of them at schools and shelters. The U.N. said
overnight that the number of displaced people had jumped by 25% over the preceding 24 hours.

Israel’s call to evacuate Gaza City sparked panic among residents already struggling to obtain food, medication and fuel. Some said it was
impossible to move given the lack of transportation and assurance of where they would then stay.

“We are barely getting through and we are hearing all the time about people evacuating and getting bombed in the places they relocate
to,” said Nadia Ghazali, who runs a catering business from her home in the city. She and her family were trying to move south on Friday.

Reem Buhaisi, an aid worker in Deir Al-Balah, southern Gaza, said she was hosting a family who had fled Gaza City, but her own town was
getting targeted. “Nobody here can confirm anywhere is safe,” she said.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, warned that the evacuation demand would deepen the
humanitarian crisis already unfolding in Gaza.

“I know firsthand that a mass evacuation to the enclave’s south would be disastrous—for patients, health workers and other civilians left
behind or caught in a dangerous and maybe a deadly mass movement,” Ghebreyesus said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “We
appeal for the reversal of the decision.”

The Norwegian Refugee Council, a humanitarian group, said that demanding the relocation of what it estimated to be 1.2 million civilians
without guaranteeing their safety or ability to return amounted to a war crime.

“My colleagues inside Gaza confirm that there are countless people in the northern parts who have no means to safely relocate under the
constant barrage of fire,” said Jan Egeland, the group’s secretary-general.

Since Thursday afternoon, Gaza has been experiencing a full blackout that has brought health, water and sanitation services to the brink
of collapse. Israel, which with the help of Egypt has imposed a blockade on the strip for years, halted electricity and fuel supplies to it on
Sunday, which led to the shutdown of Gaza’s only power plant on Thursday.

“The scale and speed of the unfolding humanitarian crisis is bone-chilling,” said the U.N. agency supporting Palestinian refugees. “Gaza is
fast becoming a hell hole and is on the brink of collapse.”

Israeli strikes on Gaza have reduced entire buildings to rubble. PHOTO: AHMAD HASABALLAH/GETTY IMAGES

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13/10/23, 11:40 U.N. Urges Israel to Rescind Gaza Evacuation Demand - WSJ

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes in Gaza since Israel’s retaliatory strikes began. PHOTO:
MOHAMMED SALEM/REUTERS

Hamas’s military wing said Friday that 13 of around 100 civilians and soldiers the group abducted from Israel over the weekend had so far
been killed in the Israeli bombing campaign. Hamas had previously threatened to execute hostages one by one if Israel continued to
bombard civilian homes in Gaza without warning.

Biden administration officials were meeting with allies in the region, hoping to prevent the conflict from drawing in other countries or
militant groups.

There have been deadly, but so far sporadic, clashes between the Israeli military and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants on Israel’s northern
border with Lebanon.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin declined to say Friday if the U.S. would take pre-emptive action against Hezbollah militants amid
speculation that the U.S. could enter the conflict.

“I will just tell you clearly that the United States will continue to support Israel’s right to defend itself,” Austin told journalists at the
Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, standing beside Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister. “The message we would send to any country or
group thinking to take advantage of this situation and widen the conflict: don’t,” Austin said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been meeting with Middle Eastern leaders including
Jordan’s King Abdullah II. PHOTO: ROYAL HASHEMITE COURT/REUTERS

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who visited Israel on Thursday, met with Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Friday and is expected to
hold talks with leaders in Qatar and Bahrain.

American officials have also been in discussions with Egypt and Israel about how to allow civilians in Gaza to exit to Egypt.

There were growing concerns about violence targeting Israeli citizens or Jewish institutions in other countries. An employee of Israel’s
embassy in Beijing was attacked Friday and hospitalized, a spokesperson for the embassy said, adding that the person was in stable
condition.

It wasn’t immediately known who carried out the attack, which the spokesperson said was currently being investigated. A person familiar
with the matter said the victim, a diplomatic passport holder, had been stabbed.

—Omar Abdel-Baqui and William Mauldin contributed to this article.

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13/10/23, 11:40 U.N. Urges Israel to Rescind Gaza Evacuation Demand - WSJ

Mourners pray over the body of a Palestinian killed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. PHOTO:
IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA/REUTERS

Write to Chao Deng at chao.deng@wsj.com and Omar Abdel-Baqui at omar.abdel-baqui@wsj.com

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