Evacuation Of The Northern Gaza Strip

On 13 October 2023, the Israel Defense Forces ordered all communities north of the Wadi Gaza, including Gaza City, to evacuate southward for their safety in anticipation of an impending ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called on Palestinians to leave the northern part of Gaza, including Gaza City, saying: "The camouflage of the terrorists is the civil population. Therefore, we need to separate them. So those who want to save their life, please go south." Israel initially demanded 1.1 million residents to evacuate within 24 hours, which was condemned by the UN as "impossible without devastating humanitarian consequences." The UN said the order created "chaos". The order came one week after a surprise offensive on Israel from Gaza was mounted by Hamas.

Israel's ground invasion of Gaza began on 27 October. , between 800,000 and 1,000,000 people moved to the south of the Gaza Strip, while 350,000 to 400,000 remained in the north. Hamas instructed civilians not to evacuate, and there are multiple reports indicating that Hamas physically hindered Gazans from fleeing to the south. Multiple reports also indicated Israel targeted Palestinians during the evacuation process and subjected them to attacks and bombardments in the southern Gaza Strip. Due to the hostilities, approximately 200,000 to 500,000 Israeli citizens have also been evacuated from communities in the vicinity of the border.

Paula Gaviria Betancur, UN special rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, condemned the forcible evacuation order as a crime against humanity and violation of international humanitarian law. The displacement resulting from the evacuation was part of a broader humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Palestinians have described the evacuation of northern Gaza as the "second Nakba."

Background

Tensions escalated when Hamas launched an offensive on Israel. Israel responded with a series of airstrike attacks on Gaza. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) issued a warning to residents in the northern regions to evacuate. The United Nations initially considered this evacuation order impractical to execute safely due to the significant number of people it affected.

An estimated 200,000 to 500,000 Israelis have also evacuated or fled their homes near the Gaza border and the border with Lebanon due to the hostilities. The IDF formally evacuated all residents within 7km of Gaza and ordered the evacuation of communities within 4km of the Lebanese border.*
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Evacuation

In the first two days following the announcement of the evacuation order, hundreds of thousands fled to southern Gaza. Israel initially provided a six-hour window for individuals to flee south. Israel exerted force on residents to flee south. International efforts were made to open a humanitarian corridor for civilians. In early November, Israel announced a daily four-hour humanitarian corridor.

By 10 November, estimates of the number of people remaining in northern Gaza ranged from the low hundreds of thousands to at least 900,000. Those who remained had little to no access to water, food, or electricity. UNICEF noted thousands of children remained in northern Gaza, whose lives were "hanging on by a thread." On 17 November, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics estimated there were still some 800,000 civilians in northern Gaza.

On 8 November, an estimated 50,000 people evacuated northern Gaza. Civilians fled northern Gaza on foot or on donkey carts. As they passed Israeli tanks, civilians waved white flags, though some reported Israeli soldiers firing at them and passing dead bodies along the road. Many fled on an evacuation corridor along Salah al-Din Road, one of Gaza's two north-south highways. On 10 November, an Israeli spokesman stated 100,000 people had fled northern Gaza in the prior two days. Evacuees reported having to pass through Israeli checkpoints, where IDF soldiers made arrests. On 12 November, Israel announced a temporary four-hour "temporary tactical cessation of military activities" at the Jabalia refugee camp to allow for residents to evacuate south. A Palestinian journalist noted the humanitarian pauses only extended to Salah al-Din Street, but not to any of the roads leading to it.

On 12 November, CARE International noted, "The journey to the south is incredibly dangerous and hard. Many of those who have made it out have experienced and witnessed terrible suffering." The same day, the International Committee of the Red Cross released a statement, noting it was "gravely concerned by the precarious and unsafe conditions under which civilians are evacuating." In an article in ''The Intercept'', Gazan journalist Hind Khoudary compared the evacuation to the Trail of Tears, writing, "We kept walking. As we walked, pushing each other, we saw bombed cars and dead bodies inside the cars. Flies filled the cars, feasting on the blood and the bodies inside." On 15 November, OCHA stated Israel was arresting evacuees, reportedly beating and stripping people naked.

The Palestinian Red Crescent documented evacuees, including children and wounded on stretchers, walking 11km (6.8-mile) from Gaza City to southern Gaza. Journalists covering the evacuation on Salah al-Din road stated men were being denied access past an Israeli checkpoint into southern Gaza. Mosab Abu Toha, a poet, was detained at an Israeli checkpoint. Doctors Without Borders condemned a deliberate Israeli attack on a medical convoy evacuating northern Gaza. Evacuees described the evacuation path as full of death and horror.

Hospitals

On 14 October 2023, Israel ordered the evacuation of 22 hospitals in northern Gaza. The WHO described the order as a "death sentence" for the sick and wounded. Doctors Without Borders issued a statement calling the order "outrageous," "an attack on medical care and on humanity," and condemned it "in the strongest possible terms." The World Health Organisation released a plea requesting Israel to rescind the orders, noting the extreme difficultly moving patients in critical care, the depletion of medical supplies, and that "the four Ministry of Health hospitals in south Gaza are already beyond capacity". Similar statements were issued by UNICEF and IRC. The WHO expressed concern about the evacuation order sent to the al-Quds Hospital in Gaza.

On 29 October 2023, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, described reports from the Palestinian Red Crescent that the al-Quds hospital had received an urgent evacuation warning and notice that it was "going to be bombarded" as "deeply concerning." He reiterated that it was "impossible to evacuate hospitals full of patients without endangering their lives."

Doctors across northern Gaza stated they were unable to follow Israel's evacuation order, since their patients, including newborns in the ICU, would die. On Monday 16 October, Israel ordered the al-Ahli Arab Hospital, and the rest of northern Gaza, to evacuate. Because of insufficient beds in the southern Gaza Strip and no means of transporting patients, such as newborns in incubators or patients on ventilators, the evacuation orders were widely regarded as impossible to comply with. On 17 October, a widely condemned explosion in the al-Ahli courtyard resulted in significant fatalities.

On 10 November, Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Al Shifa hospital, noted that despite Israeli bombings, medical staff would stay with patients until the "last moment." Abu Salmiya stated, "There is a war against hospitals… this has never happened in any war." On 12 November, the IDF announced that it was enabling a safe passage from Al-Shifa, Rantisi, and Nasser hospitals, and opened and secured an additional one to help people to evacuate to the south. On 13 November, however, the Gaza Health Ministry stated thousands of patients were unable to evacuate, after Israel’s military encircled health facilities.

On 14 November, Human Rights Watch noted the impossibility of evacuation from al-Shifa Hospital, stating , "There is no reliably safe route to evacuate. Satellite imagery confirms fires, military operations, and roadblocks on every conceivable route. And many sick and injured people in the hospital wouldn’t be able to evacuate even if the roads were clear."

Attacks on evacuees

Both Hamas and the IDF accused each other of preventing the evacuation of Palestinians from northern Gaza. According to Hamas, Israeli airstrikes bombed and killed civilians complying with the evacuation order. According to the IDF, Hamas bombed, shot, and placed roadblocks for civilians trying to escape. Hamas told civilians that roads were unsafe, stating that Israel had attacked trucks carrying evacuees. The IDF also alleged that Hamas instructed civilians to return to the north.

On October 13, Gaza mosques broadcast messages telling Gaza Strip residents to not evacuate, stating, "Hold on to your homes. Hold on to your land." On 14 October, the IDF said Palestinians moving south were stuck in traffic caused by Hamas' roadblocks.

Missile attacks

On 13 October 2023, multiple bombings targeted Palestinians attempting to leave northern Gaza City, killing 70 people, mostly women and children, and injuring 200. Hamas issued a statement accusing Israel of bombing civilians. In return, Israel accused Hamas of blocking Palestinians' evacuation, in order to use them as "human shields." Although there are disputes about the exact details of the attacks, a number of sources attribute responsibility to an Israeli missile strike.

On 3 November, fourteen people were killed by an Israeli bombardment while attempting to evacuate northern Gaza. On 11 November, the United Nations noted several explosions had hit the evacuation corridor on Salah al-Din Road, resulting in fatalities and injuries.

Tanks attacks

On 30 October, Israeli tanks blocked the roads connecting Gaza City to southern Gaza and reportedly fired on civilian vehicles complying with Israeli orders to evacuate. In one instance, a tank at Netzarim attacked a car and a bus, killing three people.

Gunfire attacks

After the ground invasion of Gaza, the IDF opened protected humanitarian corridors from Gaza City to South Gaza According to ''Ynet'', Palestinian civilians were attacked attempting to flee Gaza City. Civilians reported Israeli soldiers open-firing, despite them waving white flags.

Southern Gaza

After telling civilians to evacuate south, Israel continued to bomb the areas it told people to go to. On 6 November, ''Al Jazeera'' journalist Hani Mahmoud described southern Gaza as a large concentration camp. On 9 November, the UN estimated 30,000 northern Gazan residents had returned to the north after failing to find shelters in the south. Due to UNRWA shelters being overcrowded, many northern Gazan refugees slept in the streets. Hospitals in southern Gaza reported inadequate medical resources to deal with the volume of wounded arriving from the north. Refugees described the situation as "primitive" with "no safety."

On 11 November, the Interior Ministry stated Israel launched airstrikes in "so-called safe areas" in southern Gaza. IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi stated "more and more regions" would be targeted moving forward. Following Israel's evacuation orders for Palestinians to flee northern Gaza, the IDF intensified its attacks on southern Gaza. On 18 November, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant stated soon all of Gaza would feel the "IDF’s lethal force."

Southern Gaza evacuation

On 16 November, the IDF dropped leaflets warning residents in southern Gaza to move to the western side. Mark Regev stated Israel sought to create a "safe zone" in the southwestern corner of the Gaza Strip. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the chief of the World Health Organization, said it was a "recipe for disaster." The chiefs of multiple United Nations agencies stated they would not cooperate in the creation of the safe zone unless conditions were in place to ensure safety and essential needs were met.

Responses

Ibrahim Fraihat, a professor at Georgetown University, stated Israel's "very clear message is mass expulsion; everyone has to leave." In response to Israeli orders to evacuate parts of southern Gaza, Amnesty International urged the IDF to rescind the orders, stating they violated international law and amounted to a forced displacement.

UN response

In a statement, the UN warned of "devastating humanitarian consequences" of displacing 1.1 million Palestinians. Shortly after the evacuation orders were issued, UN facilities, including UNRWA, were instructed to move to Rafah. U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths stated that "The United Nations cannot be part of unilateral proposal to push Palestinians into so-called safe zones."

Israeli response

In a post on X on 1 November, MK Galit Distel-Atbaryan wrote, "the Gazan monsters will fly to the southern fence and try to enter Egyptian territory. or they will die." On 12 November, Israeli security cabinet member Avi Dichter stated of the evacuation, "We're Rolling Out Nakba 2023." On 13 November, Danny Danon and Ram Ben-Barak wrote an op-ed in the ''Wall Street Journal'' calling for "relocation programs" for Palestinians. On 14 November, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stated he welcomed the "voluntary immigration of Gaza Arabs to the countries of the world." In an op-ed in ''The Jerusalem Post'', Israeli Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel wrote that rather than "funneling money" to rebuild Gaza, the international community could instead resettle Gazans in "new host countries."

Palestinian response

In the first hours following Israel's evacuation orders, Gazan government officials recommended Gazans not to leave the north, urging those in affected areas to ignore the order and stay in their homes. In a statement, the Interior Ministry of the Gaza Strip stated Israel sought to "displace us once again from our land." The Hamas Authority for Refugee Affairs told residents in northern Gaza to "remain steadfast in your homes and to stand firm in the face of this disgusting psychological war waged by the occupation." The Gaza Health Ministry noted it was impossible to evacuate the wounded from hospitals, stating, "We have a duty and a humanitarian mission, and we cannot evacuate hospitals and leave the wounded and sick to die." Riyad al-Maliki, the Palestinian foreign minister, stated Israel sought to "bring to an end the Palestinian people's presence on what remains of its historical land."

International response

A spokesperson for Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry stated Israel was obstructing aid from the Rafah Crossing as part of a "systematic policy aimed at pushing the Palestinians to leave the strip under the weight of bombing and siege." On 4 November, Israel bombed the Jabalia refugee camp, leading ''Al Jazeera'' to remark Israel was "trying to eliminate all sources of survival for the civilian population to force the evacuation to the southern part of Gaza." Following an airstrike on Nuseirat refugee camp on 21 November, Egypt stated it believed the strike had "a clear objective, and that is to force Gaza's residents to leave the Strip."

Accusations of war crime

Israel's evacuation order was characterized as a forcible population transfer by Jan Egeland, the Norwegian former diplomat involved with the Oslo Accord. A "forcible transfer" is the forced relocation of a civilian population as part of an organized offense against it and is considered a crime against humanity by the International Criminal Court. In an interview with the BBC, Egeland stated, "There are hundreds of thousands of people fleeing for their life — hat isnot something that should be called an evacuation. It is a forcible transfer of people from all of northern Gaza, which according to the Geneva Convention is a war crime." UN Special rapporteur Francesca Albanese warned of a mass ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Raz Segal, an Israeli historian and director of the Holocaust and Genocide Studies program at Stockton University, termed it a "textbook case of genocide."

On 13 October 2023, a draft document prepared by Israel's Ministry of Intelligence proposed moving 2.3 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. On 8 November, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated there should be "no forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza."

Israeli humanitarian claims

The call for north Gaza residents to head south of the battle zone was characterized by a former Israeli officer as a "Humanitarian Exodus" to save as many lives as possible. On October 15, Israel's chief military spokesman accused Hamas of trying to use civilians as human shields and issued a new appeal to Gaza residents to move south of the battle zone.

An IDF officer told the ''New York Times'' that instead of the "roof knocking" policy, Israel is issuing mass evacuation orders and leaflets stating that "anyone who is near Hamas fighters will put their lives in danger." On 21 October 2023, the Israeli army dropped more leaflets in Gaza with the message: "Urgent warning! To the residents of Gaza: your presence to the North of Wadi Gaza is putting your lives at risk. Anyone who chooses not to evacuate from the North of the Gaza Strip to the South of the Gaza Strip may be identified as a partner in a terrorist organization."

The Jabalia refugee camp, which has been the target of Israeli strikes since 9 October 2023, was struck again on 31 October. IDF spokesman Richard Hecht accused Hamas of "hiding, as they do, behind civilians"; when CNN host Wolf Blitzer reminded him that there were many innocent civilians in the camp, Hecht replied, "This is the tragedy of war" and said civilians should move south.

See also

* Evacuations during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war
* 2023 Israeli ground operations in the Gaza Strip
*October 2023 Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip
*Evacuation in the Soviet Union
*Outline of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war

Notes

References

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2023 Israel–Hamas war
2023 in the Gaza Strip
Ethnic cleansing in Asia
History of the Gaza Strip
Society of the Gaza Strip
Gaza Strip
History of Palestine (region)
Palestine (region)
Society of the State of Palestine