Israel has ordered the entire population of Gaza City to evacuate, in what marks the first time during the current war that a blanket order has been issued for the city’s one million residents. The evacuation call comes ahead of a major planned ground assault aimed at occupying the city, which Israel says is Hamas’ last major stronghold.
The Israeli military dropped thousands of leaflets over Gaza City on Tuesday, telling civilians they needed to leave before an imminent offensive.
Airstrikes continued to pound the city as the order dropped, leaving many residents caught between staying put or attempting the dangerous journey south.
“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 in a televised address, as reported by The Guardian.
Despite weeks of calls from Israel urging civilians to head towards al-Mawasi in southern Gaza – an area designated by Israel as a so-called humanitarian zone – only about 50,000 residents have left over the past month, according to The Guardian. For many, the cost of moving, as well as ongoing bombardments of the south itself, have made it close to impossible.
Aid groups and international observers have warned that the consequences of a full-scale military assault on Gaza City will be devastating. The UN has said it can cost families more than $1,000 to relocate to the south, a sum out of reach for most Gazans given widespread poverty.
Residents who are already crowded into tents and damaged buildings in the south say there is no capacity to take in more displaced people. “There’s no place left, not in the south, nor the north, nothing. We’ve become completely trapped,” displaced cancer patient Bajess al-Khaldi told Reuters.
Meanwhile, hospitals in Gaza City are refusing to evacuate. Local health authorities announced that doctors at Al Shifa and Al Ahli hospitals will not abandon their patients, despite the looming attack.
The last 24 hours in Gaza saw at least 83 people killed by Israeli strikes, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Netanyahu said Israeli forces have already destroyed 50 so-called “terror towers” that he claims Hamas is using. Defence Minister Israel Katz warned that these strikes are “only the introduction” to a larger push into the city, promising what he called a “mighty hurricane” unless Hamas surrenders and releases hostages.
Palestinian health authorities said six more people also died from hunger on Tuesday, bringing the total number of starvation deaths since the beginning of the war to 399. Humanitarian organisations have warned that the city is already in famine conditions after repeated interruptions to aid flows.
Israel’s evacuation order has faced a wave of global criticism. On Sunday, Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen stood alongside his Israeli counterpart in Jerusalem and urged Israel to “change course” on the planned invasion. Meanwhile UK ministers have not concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and the Australian Government is yet to comment on Israel’s latest orders.
The situation on the ground is also complicating ongoing ceasefire talks. Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar confirmed on Monday that Hamas was weighing a new US‑backed truce proposal, which Israel has already accepted.
The talks are the first signs of movement in weeks, after an earlier ceasefire attempt faltered in August.
At least 64,522 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023, according to local health officials.
As leaflets fall and bombs continue to hit Gaza’s last major city, tens of thousands of residents have once again been pushed to make an impossible choice: stay under fire, or flee further into an already devastated and overcrowded south.
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