Israel 'terrorizes'10 lakh Gazans to evacuate as world 'simply' watches on

NT Bureau, Agencies

Tel Aviv/Gaza Strip: Thousands of Palestinians have begun to flee their homes in the Gaza Strip after the Israeli military called for all civilians in the northern half of the besieged enclave to relocate south, as it amassed tanks for an expected ground assault.

The United Nations warned on Friday that the order demanding the relocation of 1.1 million people within 24 hours was “impossible” and could have devastating consequences.

Hamas called on Palestinians to stay in their homes on Friday after Israel issued sweeping evacuation orders in Gaza.

The order, which comes on the seventh day of a war and “total blockade” declared by Israel following an unprecedented Hamas incursion and deadly attack, directs residents of Gaza City to flee deeper south into the Gaza Strip, a narrow coastal territory that is home to about 2.3 million people.

Palestinians in southern and central areas of the enclave, where people were expected to flee to, said air strikes had hit there overnight, with central parts also hit on Friday morning.

“No place is safe in the entire Gaza Strip,” the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said. A Palestinian journalist on the ground in Gaza asserts, "Israel is the real perpetrator of terrorism, terrorizing the people of Gaza. What's even m o r e shocking is that the world is simply watching this massacre unfold."

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, out of a total of 1,800 Palestinian killed in Gaza so far, 583 are children and 351 are women, and more than 6,000 others wounded in Gaza since Israel launched a relentless bombardment of the territory on Saturday.

The UN humanitarian office (OCHA) said more than 400,000 people had already been made homeless in Gaza and 23 aid workers had been killed. “Mass displacement continues,” it said.

Evacuation order death sentence’ for patients: WHO

Israel’s evacuation order for Gaza amounts to a “death sentence” for vulnerable hospital patients, the World Health Organization has warned.

WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said health authorities in Gaza have advised that it is impossible to evacuate vulnerable hospital patients within 24 hours as ordered by Israel’s military.

“There are severely ill people whose injuries mean their only chances of survival is being on life support, such as mechanical ventilators,” Jasarevic said on Thursday.

“So moving those people is a death sentence. Asking health workers to do so is beyond cruel.”

Erdogan: ‘No hope for peace unless Palestinians have rights’

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that “our stance stays the same regardless of what happens,” and that “there is no hope for peace unless Palestinians get their rights.”

He condemned the US’ support of Israel. “Blinken says that he went to Israel not as the US Secretary of State but as a Jew, how would people feel if I said I went to Palestine as a Muslim first, " he questioned.

'Invading Gaza will be Israel’s biggest ever war crime'

In an interview to The Wire where he outlines an extremely depressing and disturbing future for his country Israel, the internationally acclaimed columnist of Haaretz newspaper, Gideon Levy, has bluntly said that if Israel “invades Gaza it will be one of the biggest crimes of war Israel has ever committed.”

He says if PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s threat “to change the Middle East” and defence minister Yoav Gallant’s threat that “Gaza will never go back to what it was” are implemented, Israel could be “on the brink of a wider war”.

“Israel fires at innocent people, takes out people’s eyes and smashes their faces, and still consider everything will be alright,” he added.

Second batch of Indian nationals fly out of Israel on Friday

After safely evacuating 212 Indian nationals from Israel, the Indian Embassy in Tel Aviv is facilitating more flights, including one on Friday evening, amidst the Israel-Hamas conflict.

India launched 'Operation Ajay' on Thursday to facilitate the return of those who wish to return home.

The first charter flight to facilitate the return of Indian citizens from Israel left late Thursday evening from the Ben Gurion airport carrying 211 adults and an infant and reached the Indian capital Friday morning.

Israeli shelling along Lebanon border kills 1 journalist, wounds 6

An Israeli shell landed in a gathering of international journalists covering clas