Palestinians living in the ruins of Gaza City were bombarded with Israeli leaflets on Tuesday ordering them out, after Israel said it was about to obliterate the area in an assault to wipe out Hamas.
Residents of the city, home to a million Palestinians before the war, have been expecting an onslaught for weeks, since the Israeli government devised a plan to deal Hamas a fatal blow in what it says are the militant group’s last strongholds.
“I say to the residents of Gaza, take this opportunity and listen to me carefully: you have been warned — get out of there!” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
The Israeli military airdropped leaflets with evacuation orders onto residents standing amid the rubble of Gaza City, where it has bombed residential towers to the ground in the past few days.
The evacuation orders caused panic and confusion among residents of the strip’s largest urban centre, who say there is no safe place to go to escape bombardment and a humanitarian crisis. Some said they would have no choice but to leave for the south, but many said they would stay and there were no immediate signs of a mass exodus.
The health authorities in Gaza announced they would evacuate Gaza City’s two main operational hospitals, Al Shifa and Al Ahli, adding that doctors would not leave patients unattended.
Most Gazans have already been displaced several times since the war started in October 2023 when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
