Israeli leaflets ordered around one million Palestinians to flee Gaza City on Tuesday, 9 September, ahead of a planned assault on Hamas, leaving residents in panic and confusion.
“I say to the residents of Gaza, take this opportunity and listen to me carefully, you have been warned — get out of there!” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Palestinians are being told to evacuate to al-Mawasi area, a narrow strip of coastal land one kilometer wide and fourteen kilometers long. The area has no infrastructure to support the large numbers pushed into it by repeated evacuation orders, after the army leveled most buildings and homes in Rafah and Khan Yunis.
Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza held a symbolic march on Tuesday, defying Israeli military evacuation orders and asserting their resistance to forced displacement. Carrying placards and chanting, participants vowed to remain in their city.
The call for evacuation happened on the same day after Israel confirmed that it carried out an airstrike targeting senior Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar. The attack comes just days after Israeli army chief Eyal Zamir threatened to assassinate Hamas leaders living abroad.
The escalation comes as the war in Gaza approached the two-year mark, with the Palestinian death toll surpassing 64,000, according to Gaza’s health authorities.
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