European Centre for Counterterrorism and Intelligence Studies, Germany & Netherlands – ECCI
Israel-Hamas war: Israel warns those in Gaza’s north to flee
Dw – Israel’s military told residents of Gaza City to relocate toward the south within 24 hours. The UN said evacuation orders from Israel could affect 1.1 million people and have devastating consequences. Follow DW for more.
Hamas fires fresh barrage of rockets at Israel
Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip fired hundreds of rockets toward Israel on Friday, an AFP journalist reported, as the Israeli military continued pounding the Palestinian enclave with air strikes.
Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigade said it launched 150 rockets toward the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon.
Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, Germany, the EU and the US as well as several other nations.
WHO: ‘Impossible’ to move patients hospitalized in Gaza
After Israel called on residents in northern Gaza to evacuate to the south of the territory within 24 hours, the World Health Organization said it would be impossible to move vulnerable hospital patients.
“The Palestinian Ministry of Health has informed WHO that is impossible to evacuate vulnerable hospital patients from the north of Gaza,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva.
The call for evacuation affects around 1.1 million residents — just under half the population of Gaza.
People in Gaza don’t know where to go, Norwegian Refugee Council tells DW
People in Gaza don’t know where to go, Norwegian Refugee Council tells DW
Ahmed Bayram from the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) aid group spoke to DW from Jordan about the uncertainty and fear many were feeling and facing in Gaza.
“Our staff are perplexed really by last night’s announcement [to leave northern Gaza within 24 hours], we have moved from worry to panic, to fear and now perplexity,” he said. “This announcement is going to threaten not just our staff, not just an entire half of the population in Gaza, but also the future of this conflict.”
Bayram said the NRC had more than 50 Palestinian staff members who had to leave their homes.
“They are fearing for their lives. Their children don’t know what is happening, and they think that what is happening is punishment for an entire population,” Bayram said.
Israel has conducted hundreds of strikes on the densely populated Gaza Strip in retaliation for the weekend’s brutal Hamas terror attacks.
“This is the phrase that everyone’s repeating, ‘We don’t know where to go,'” Bayram said, adding that his colleagues were unable to help anyone else, considering the circumstances they themselves were facing.
On the Israel Defense Force’s (IDF) call for those in northern Gaza to move to the south in 24 hours, Bayram said: “It’s not just unrealistic, it’s really, I think, a reckless attempt to panic people. There is no genuine way you can achieve that.”
Bayram explained that hospitals in northern Gaza are “overflooded with patients, some of them in life-threatening situations.”
“That kind of order gives the impression that southern Gaza is safe, and that is simply not true,” Bayram said, pointing out that there were no shelters to take people in and there was no aid for people.
Bayram added that such a call for evacuation “was not just unrealistic but also a flagrant breach of international law.”
European Centre for Counterterrorism and Intelligence Studies, Germany & Netherlands – ECCI
