GAZA CITY (Palestinian Territories): Thousands of Palestinians fled Saturday to southern Gaza seeking refuge after Israel warned them to evacuate before an expected ground offensive against Hamas in retaliation for the deadliest attack in Israel’s history.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that nearly a week of fierce bombardment was “just the beginning” as Israel seeks to retaliate against Hamas after their fighters killed more than 1,300 a week ago.
Israeli ground forces made “localised” raids into Gaza in the past 24 hours “to cleanse the area of terrorists and weaponry” and try to find “missing persons”, the army said.
Most of those killed when militant fighters burst through the heavily militarised border into Israel last Saturday were civilians, in an attack compared to 9/11 in the United States.
At least 1,900 Gazans — most of them civilians and including more than 600 children — have been killed in missile strikes on the densely populated enclave, the health ministry said.
“Where to go?” asked Umm Hossam, 29, who was among the thousands fleeing.
“How long will the strikes and death last? We have no homes left, every area of Gaza is under threat,” said the 29-year-old, her face streaked with tears.
Hamas took about 150 Israeli, foreign and dual national hostages back to Gaza in the initial attack, Israel has said.
The militant group said Friday that 13 of them had been killed in Israeli air strikes.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, in Israel Friday, accused Hamas of using residents as a “shield” in Gaza, where Israel has cut off water, fuel and food supplies.
US President Joe Biden spoke with the families of 14 Americans who have been missing since the Hamas attack Friday.
“We’re going to do everything in our power to find them,” he told CBS’s “60 Minutes”.
He also stressed that addressing the swelling humanitarian crisis in Gaza was a “priority”.
“The overwhelming majority of Palestinians had nothing to do with Hamas and Hamas’s appalling attacks, and they’re suffering as a result as well,” Biden said in a speech.
Tensions have risen across the Middle East and beyond, with angry protests in support of the Palestinians, while Israel faces the threat of a separate confrontation with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
A Reuters video journalist was killed and six other reporters — from AFP, Reuters and Al Jazeera — were injured in southern Lebanon close to Israel, caught up in cross-border shelling.
In the occupied West Bank, at least 16 Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli forces during protests supporting Gaza, the health ministry said.
Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza.
But Netanyahu’s spokeswoman Tal Heinrich told AFP: “Everything that happens in Gaza is Hamas’s responsibility.”
Thousands also demonstrated in support of the Palestinians on Friday in Beirut, Iraq, Iran and in Jordan.
Demonstrations also took place in Bahrain, where US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting Saturday, as part of a regional tour seeking to keep calm in the Arab world.
In Gaza, UN officials said the Israeli military, whose troops are massing at the border, had said some 1.1 million people in the north of the enclave needed to evacuate to the south “within the next 24 hours”.
Israel did not confirm it had set the deadline, but later admitted it would take more time. A ground offensive would be complicated by the presence of hostages.
The United Nations described the immediate movement of nearly half of the 2.4 million in the Gaza Strip as “impossible” called for the evacuation order to be rescinded.
“Moving more than one million people across a densely populated war zone to a place with no food, water, or accommodation, when the entire territory of Gaza is under siege, is extremely dangerous – and in some cases, simply not possible,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said on X, formerly Twitter. – AFP
