The United Nations said late on Thursday evening in New York that it had received an evacuation order from the Israeli Defence Forces saying that everyone in northern Gaza should leave within the next 24 hours and go to the south.
The UN statement said that they had been informed that “The entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza” must evacuate to southern Gaza. Wadi Gaza is the river that divides Gaza roughly into north and South.
The order applied to the Gazans sheltering in UN facilities, and to UN staff.
The spokesperson for the UN Secretary General said that the area included 1.1 million people, and that the task would be “impossible without devastating humanitarian consequences”.
A short while later, at 7,30 am in Tel Aviv, an IDF spokesperson released a daily video update in which he read out a statement from the IDF directed at residents of Gaza City calling for them to evacuate south of the Gaza river.
Reuters reports that the population of Gaza city is one million people. Al Jazeera reports that it is 700,000 people.
The update did not indicate how much time Palestinians would be given to evacuate. Conricus said only, “we understand that this will take time, it’s not an easy process”.
The IDF evacuation statement reads, in full:
The IDF calls for the evacuation of all civilians from Gaza city, from their homes, southwards, for their own safety and protection, and to move to the area south of wadi Gaza, the river Gaza, as shown on the map.
The Hamas terrorist organisation waged a war against the state of Israel, and Gaza City is an area where military operations are taking place. This evacuation is for your own safety. You will be able to return to Gaza city only when another announcement permitting it is made. Do not approach the area of the security fence of Israel. Hamas terrorists are hiding in Gaza city, inside tunnels, underneath houses and inside buildings populated with innocent civilians who are using you as human shields.
In the following days the IDF will continue to operate with significant force in Gaza city and will make extensive efforts to avoid harming civilians.”