BEIRUT — Israel on Tuesday ordered the evacuation of the entire city of Gaza, the first time it has done so in the run-up to its planned full invasion of the largest urban center in the Gaza Strip’s north.
Home to roughly 1 million residents before the war, Gaza City still has hundreds of thousands of residents who are enduring famine conditions and fearful of displacement to other parts of an enclave where nowhere has proven safe in Israel’s almost-two-year campaign to destroy Hamas.
Six Palestinians died of hunger on Tuesday, according to Palestinian health authorities, increasing the death toll of starvation victims to 399.
“There’s no place left to go, not in the south, not in the north, nothing,” said Bajess AlKhaledi, a Gaza resident interviewed on Tuesday by Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera English. “We’re completely trapped.”
The evacuation order came the same day Israel launched an attack on Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital of Doha.
Some 50,000 have left northern Gaza to areas south, according to the United Nations and partner humanitarian agencies on Sunday. They warn that hundreds of thousands are expected stay put in Gaza City because of logistical and financial difficulties, and that plans for large-scale displacement would amount to forced migration — a war crime under international law.
It remains unclear when the Gaza City invasion will start, though Israel has already called up tens of thousands of reservists and destroyed dozens of high-rise residential towers in recent days. The Israeli military said the towers were being used by Hamas, a charge Hamas denied.
The Israeli military says it controls some 40% of the city.
“All of this is only the introduction, only the beginning of the main intensive operation — the ground incursion of our forces, that are now getting organized and gathering, into Gaza City,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address on Monday.
“To the residents of Gaza, listen to me carefully: You have been warned; get out of there!”
Israel claims Hamas remains bunkered in Gaza City and has vowed to destroy its remaining bastions there to prevent it from regrouping, despite repeated warnings by the U.N. and rights groups that no area in the enclave could handle large-scale displacement.
“Gaza is being obliterated, reduced to a wasteland,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, in a social media post on Tuesday.
“There is no safe place in Gaza, let alone a humanitarian zone. It is a large and growing camp concentrating hungry Palestinians in despair,” Lazzarini wrote.
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, meanwhile, called for “immediate protection” of hospitals and medical crews, and warned of “a humanitarian catastrophe that threatens the lives of thousands of patients and wounded individuals.”
The majority of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents have already suffered multiple displacements since the war began, as Israel’s military campaign has attacked designated “safe zones” and left wide swaths of the Strip obliterated. Famine, spurred by a months-long total blockade by Israel, stalks additional victims every day.
Israel’s plans to invade Gaza City continue even as torturous back-and-forth negotiations with Hamas received a push from President Trump over the weekend.
On Sunday, Trump issued what he called a final warning to Hamas to accept a deal he proposed.
Details remain scant, but the agreement stipulates the Palestinian group release all hostages in its custody in exchange for the release of an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israel jail.
“The Israelis have accepted my Terms. It is time for Hamas to accept as well,” Trump said on Truth Social. “I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning, there will not be another one!”
Hamas responded in a statement on Sunday that it was ready to “immediately” sit at the negotiating table to release all hostages. In return, Hamas wants “a clear declaration” from Israel to end the war, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and the formation of an independent committee to administer the Strip.
It added that it wanted guarantees Israel would adhere to the agreement. Israel broke a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in March. It did not respond to another U.S. proposal in August that Hamas accepted.
Israel has also demanded Hamas surrender and lay down its arms. The group says it will not disarm until Israel agrees to the creation of an independent Palestinian state over Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which would have East Jerusalem as its capital. East Jerusalem is considered occupied under international law, though Israel says it is part of its capital.
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