DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinians scrambled to flee northern Gaza on Saturday after the Israeli military ordered nearly half the population to evacuate south and carried out limited ground forays ahead of an expected land offensive a week
Israel renewed calls on social media and in leaflets dropped from the air for some 1 million Gaza residents to move south, while Hamas urged people to stay in their homes. The U.N. and aid groups have said such a rapid exodus would cause untold human suffering, with hospital patients and others unable to relocate.
“I came here with my children. We slept on the ground. We don’t have a mattress, or clothes,” Howeida al-Zaaneen, 63, who is from the northern town of Beit Hanoun, said. “I want to go back to my home, even if it is destroyed.” Palestinians and some Egyptian officials fear Israel’s ultimate aim is to push Gaza’s people out of the territory through its southern border with Egypt.
An Israeli military spokesperson, Jonathan Conricus, said the evacuation was aimed at keeping civilians safe and preventing Hamas from using them as human shields. He urged people in the targeted areas to leave immediately and to return “only when we tell them that it is safe to do so.” Two witnesses reported a strike on fleeing cars near Deir el-Balah, in an area where Israel had advised Palestinian evacuees to go. Fayza Hamoudi said she and her family were driving from their home in the north when the strike on the road hit some distance ahead and two vehicles burst into flames. A witness from another car on the road gave a similar account.
Israeli airstrikes since the Hamas attack already forced at least 423,000 people — nearly 1 in 5 Gaza residents — from their homes as of Thursday, according to the United Nations. The U.N. estimated that by Friday night, tens of thousands had heeded the Israeli warning to leave homes in the north.
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