Israel extends deadline for civilians to flee northern Gaza ahead of expected land offensive

Gaza is running out of time. Tens of thousands of civilians were fleeing into southern Gaza on Saturday because of the ultimatum issued the day before by Israel, according to data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid (OCHA). The Israeli army placed the number in the hundreds of thousands and insisted that civilians could safely make their way south on the two major parallel roads until the 4 p.m. deadline issued by the Israeli military, which on Sunday was extended to 1 p.m. local time.

That ultimatum followed an earlier deadline that expired in the early morning hours of Saturday. Israel also carried out some limited ground operations ahead of an expected wider land offensive against Hamas, the armed Islamist group that governs the Gaza Strip, following their attack into southern Israel a week ago. “They have been very contained, mainly near the fence [the border security barrier] to locate hostages and kill terrorists,” the military spokesman said. Israeli media reports indicate that the army has recovered the bodies of Israelis who were taken to Gaza during the massive attack by Hamas-led Palestinian armed groups.

Thousands of people were walking along the road heading south, even as loudspeakers in the mosques urged the population to stay put. Gaza’s Hamas authorities have spoken of the Israeli warning to evacuate as “propaganda aimed at confusing citizens and breaking internal Palestinian cohesion.” The United Nations estimated that tens of thousands had fled homes in the north by Friday night.

“We are aware that it will take time, but they have to be moving south [...] We are doing everything we can to make it happen, we understand the complexity, but we are determined to act against Hamas,” Israeli army international media spokesman Richard Hecht said in a video conference. The mass evacuation order applies to all of Gaza City, home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

Israel is carrying out heavy airstrikes in Gaza that have so far killed 2,300 people, over 700 of them children, according to data provided on Saturday by the Ministry of Health of the Gaza Strip. Some 1,300 buildings have been destroyed, according to the U.N.

Neither the U.N. nor the humanitarian organizations working on the ground consider such a population movement feasible in one of the most densely populated areas of the planet, where 2.3 million people are unable to leave. Even before the Israeli ultimatum, many Gazans were already on the move, either because their homes had been destroyed or because they were seeking refuge. The number of people who fled their homes reached 423,000 on Friday, up 25% from the previous day, according to OCHA. Two-thirds are among the 92 schools run by UNRWA.

The call for the massive displacement of almost half of the population of the Strip, including the capital, points to the imminence of a land offensive. Late on Friday, Israeli authorities gave Al Awda Hospital two hours to evacuate, according to Doctors Without Borders. “We unequivocally condemn this action, the indiscriminate bloodshed and attacks against medical teams. We are trying to protect our staff and their patients,” the organization said on X (formerly Twitter). Later, the NGO reported that the Israeli forces had delayed the evacuation demand until 6 a.m. The north of Gaza is also home to the main hospital, Al Shifa, which is treating more than 6,000 wounded people and has had to leave bodies in the outdoor parking lot because the morgue is full.

The unprecedented evacuation order was received with concern by international organizations. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA) called it “horrendous.” “The scale and speed of the unfolding humanitarian crisis is bone-chilling. Gaza is fast becoming a hellhole and is on the brink of collapse,” said Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner general.

The Israeli ultimatum is, according to Amnesty International, an impossible demand that even the Israeli army spokesman has admitted cannot be carried out in a single day. The same organization denounces the use of white phosphorus in the air raids that the Israeli army is carrying out in areas inhabited by civilians in the Gaza Strip. “The use of white phosphorus in Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas in the world, magnifies the risk to civilians and violates the international humanitarian law prohibition on putting civilians at unnecessary risk,” added Human Rights Watch in a statement this week, adding that nobody has the right to attack civilians, no matter what the other side has done.

The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, said that the displacement of a million people through a densely populated war zone to a place without food, water or shelter, when the entire territory is under siege is “extremely dangerous and, in some cases, simply impossible.” Guterres recalled that the hospitals in the south of the Strip are already at the limit of their capacity and will not be able to accept thousands of new patients from the north. “We need immediate humanitarian access throughout Gaza, so that we can get fuel, food and water to everyone in need. Even wars have rules,” he said.

The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, speaking to news media on a visit to China, welcomed the evacuation order but said, “You cannot move such a volume of people in (a) short period of time,” noting a lack of shelters and transportation.

“Only the beginning”

Late on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a brief statement that was televised after the Jewish Sabbath had begun: “We are striking our enemies with unprecedented might. I emphasize that this is only the beginning.”

The Israeli Armed Forces justified the demand to evacuate northern Gaza on the “safety and protection” of residents north of Wadi Gaza, about five kilometers south of the capital. “We understand that it will take time,” said its spokesman, Daniel Hagari, pointing to Hamas – which has governed Gaza since 2007 – as “solely responsible” for current developments. “It is a war zone, but we are looking at the [satellite] photographs and we will make sure it is done safely,” he said in a video conference with journalists.

“Gaza civilians, evacuate the city to the south for your own safety and that of your families, and stay away from the Hamas terrorists who are using you as human shields. In the coming days, the army will operate significantly in the city. Great efforts will be made to prevent harm to civilians,” the Armed Forces warned in an appeal – through leaflets, radio, mobile messages and the internet – to those living in the capital, Gaza City.

Hamas said Israel’s airstrikes killed 13 hostages, including foreigners. It did not provide their nationalities. The military denied the claim. Hamas hopes to trade the hostages for thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

The Gaza Strip is one of the world’s most densely populated places, with 5,500 people per square kilometer. Half of the population is under 18 years old.

More than half of the Palestinians in Gaza are descendants of refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, when hundreds of thousands fled or were expelled from what is now Israel. A massive population displacement would connect, in the collective memory of Gaza, with the Nakba, the flight or expulsion of some 750,000 Palestinians and the destruction of more than 400 localities. It is still very present as an element of identity, even among young people who only know it through stories.

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