A mass exodus has begun and the Israeli’s have extended their deadline hoping their threat will work at emptying North Gaza before they launch a possible ground incursion…
Not all of the Palestinians will leave…..
NY Times….
Fear and uncertainty hung over Gaza on Saturday, as the Israeli military renewed calls for more than a million people to leave the northern part of the blockaded territory, sending panicked civilians fleeing south, where they were struggling to find food, water or a place to shelter.
An initial deadline of 24 hours that Israel gave to the United Nations for people to relocate came and went, after the military softened its stance and said that it understood that “it will take time” for civilians to leave. Displaced families crammed into schools and hospitals, while others had spent the night sleeping out in the open.
“Hundreds of thousands” of people have been displaced in just the last 12 hours, the U.N. agency that aids Palestinians said on Saturday afternoon. It said that nearly one million people — or close to half of Gaza’s approximately two million residents — have been displaced since the fighting began a week ago. But many Gazans chose not to heed the evacuation warning and stayed put, out of defiance, lack of means or fear they wouldn’t be allowed to return.
With anticipation building that Israeli troops massed near the Gaza border are gearing up for a ground invasion, the Israeli military said it would allow Palestinians to move south on two of the Gaza Strip’s main roads between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. “without any harm.”
On Friday, at least 70 Palestinians were killed and 200 more were wounded by Israeli airstrikes as they were attempting to head south to safety, according to the interior ministry in Gaza. Palestinian officials say about 2,215 people have been killed in Gaza in the past week and that more than 8,714 have been injured.
The United Nations and aid groups have pleaded for Israel to reverse itself and stop the mass movement of people they fear will worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis. Negotiations to send humanitarian aid to Gaza via Egypt have stalled over disagreement about how the aid convoys might be screened before entering the enclave, a senior Western diplomat familiar with the talks said Saturday, as the U.N. warned that clean water was running out.
Israel has said it aims to strip away the military capabilities of Hamas, which controls Gaza and that staged the devastating attack a week ago on southern Israel that killed more than 1,300 people, mostly civilians.
Here is what to know:
-
A senior State Department official said that the Israeli and Egyptian governments have agreed to allow American citizens to cross from Gaza into Egypt between noon and 5 p.m. local time on Saturday. The crossing from Gaza, which is under an Israeli blockade backed by Egypt, has been closed and by 3 p.m. local time it was not clear if any U.S. citizens had been able to cross.
-
President Biden, while calling the Hamas attack “pure evil,” said that the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza was a concern. The territory’s two million people have been cut off from food, medicine, clean water and fuel after Israel declared a “complete siege.”
-
The Israeli army said it is investigating the death of Issam Abdullah, a Reuters journalist who was killed on Friday night amid escalating clashes on Lebanon’s southern border with Israel. Six other journalists were injured in the incident.
-
Hundreds of thousands of people turned out at rallies across the Middle East on Friday to express outrage over the Israeli response. A half million people filled Tahrir Square in Baghdad, and large protests broke out in Beirut and Bahrain.
-
The Israeli military said on Friday that allegations that it had used white phosphorous munitions in Gaza were “unequivocally false,” after rights groups said there was evidence that Israel had used the munitions. White phosphorous is a potent incendiary that can cause severe and lasting burns, and its use in populated areas would violate international law.