Israel has made its first statement of switching from an air war to ground operations to root out Hamas rebels a week after their deadly rampage in southern Israel, claiming that its soldiers and tanks conducted out assaults inside the Gaza Strip on Friday.
After Israel ordered more than a million Palestinians to leave the northern part of the Gaza Strip within 24 hours, some inhabitants of Gaza were fleeing their houses on Friday to avoid an Israeli assault. Hamas warned them against going.
According to Israeli Military Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, troops backed up by tanks conducted raids against Palestinian rocket crews.
Hamas, which controls the densely populated Palestinian territory, vowed to fight until the last drop of blood. The Israeli Military said a significant number of Gazans had begun moving southwards “to save themselves“.
The U.N. said Israel’s call for Gaza civilians to leave was impossible to carry out “without devastating humanitarian consequences.”
The Palestinian Authority’s President, Mahmoud Abbas, told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Jordan that the forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza would be a replay of 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians left or were pushed from what is now Israel. The vast majority of Gazans are descended from such refugees.
Gaza is already one of the most populated areas on the planet, and there is no way out for the time being. Israel has enforced a total blockade, and Egypt, which shares a border with the enclave, has so far refused to open it to escaping civilians.
Cairo said Israel’s call on Gazans to leave their homes was a violation of international humanitarian law that would put civilians in danger.
