The IDF has told Gazans to move to the south end of the Gaza Strip, in anticipation of Israeli troops entering from the north:
Israel has told 1.1 million Palestinians living in northern Gaza to leave now ahead of its expected ground assault on Hamas.
The military said on Friday morning it planned to “operate significantly” within Gaza City “in the coming days”.
All citizens and UN staff have been told to move south beyond Wadi Gaza “for your own safety”.
The Israeli military told Palestinians: “You will only be able to return to Gaza when another announcement permitting it is made.”
Thousands of leaflets with those instructions have been dropped :
Israel’s bombing has attacked military targets:
A senior Hamas commander was killed after Israel struck over 750 targets in Gaza overnight, vowing to annihilate the terrorists who led Saturday’s attack.
The commander led Hamas’ special “Nukhba” military unit, which was said to be tasked with infiltrating Israel.
Israeli strikes hit underground tunnels used by Hamas, as well as military compounds, residences of senior operatives and weapons storage warehouses.
Dozens of fighter jets were involved in the strikes, which Israel said included 12 Hamas military assets “each located in a multi-storey building”.
Inevitably, civilians have been injured and killed, although it is often hard to tell who is a “civilian” in a terrorist state like Gaza. Journalists are salivating at the thought of turning the public relations tide against Israel by featuring stories of alleged civilian casualties. One sensitive observer thinks that Israel’s plan to rid Gaza of Hamas is inherently too dangerous:
“The use of heavy machinery in residential areas is a complex matter fraught with grave consequences,” [Vladimir] Putin said, “most importantly, the civilian casualties will be absolutely unacceptable.”
They are acceptable to me. Hamas won the last election, in 2006, just as the Nazis did in Germany in 1932, although Hamas won a majority, which the Nazi Party didn’t. So Gaza has been on a path to destruction for a while. If the Gazans and their political leaders wanted to avoid civilian casualties, they shouldn’t have started the war. It is too late now, and whatever casualties occur from now on will be their fault.
UPDATE: The United Nations is urging Israel to rescind its order to evacuate Gaza City:
A U.N. spokesman in New York estimated that there are 1.1 million people in northern Gaza—about half of the strip’s total population—and urged Israel to rescind its announcement to avoid “a calamitous situation.”
Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since 2007, told civilians to stay in their homes and not heed the Israeli military’s evacuation call.
Because Hamas wants the largest possible number of civilians killed.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, warned that the evacuation demand would deepen the humanitarian crisis already unfolding in Gaza.
The “humanitarian crisis” is 100% the fault of Hamas and the large majority of Gazans who have supported Hamas for years. They sowed the wind, and they are about to reap the whirlwind. To the extent that there are innocents–non-Hamas supporters–who suffer, Israel has tried to prevent that suffering, while Hamas and the majority who support Hamas have deliberately brought it on.
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