Thousands of residents flee northern Gaza Strip following Israeli warning to evacuate the area

Thousands of residents of the northern Gaza Strip fled south on Friday in cars, trucks, on donkey carts and on foot following an Israeli warning to evacuate the area within 24 hours.

“Civilians of Gaza City, evacuate south for your own safety and the safety of your families and distance yourself from Hamas terrorists who are using you as human shields,” the Israeli military said.

The area in question covers about a third of the entire area of the Gaza Strip, and includes Gaza City, two large refugee camps – Jabaliya and Shati (Beach camp) – and the neighbourhoods north of Gaza City, including Beit Hanoun.

More than one million residents live in the area but hundreds of thousands had already fled due to the relentless Israeli air strikes that began last Saturday after more than 1,000 gunmen infiltrated into Israel killing more than 1,300 people, mostly civilians in communities close to the border.

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Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza, urged the residents to remain put. “Remain steadfast in your homes and stand firm in the face of this disgusting psychological war waged by the occupation,” it said.

The United Nations, which operates clinics and schools throughout the Gaza Strip, urged Israel to withdraw its order, warning of “devastating humanitarian consequences”. The Norwegian Refugee Council described the Israeli move as a war crime of forcible transfer.

The area in question is the location of an enormous Hamas underground tunnel network, where it is believed most of the militants fled after Saturday’s surprise cross-border attack.

The Israeli warning is the clearest indication yet that an expected ground incursion is now close. However, the 24-hour warning does not necessarily mean that the invasion will begin on Saturday morning. Based on previous experience the ground offensive will be preceded by an even more intensive air barrage.

Some 360,000 Israeli reservists have been drafted – the largest number ever – and huge forces are now massed along the Gaza border, waiting for the orders to move.

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The Israeli military confirmed on Friday that tanks and infantry troops had already carried out limited “localised” raids into Gaza in an effort to locate some of the hostages Hamas seized during Saturday’s incursion, and managed to retrieve some bodies that had been left close to the border that were identified from the air.

Israel’s interrogation of Hamas gunmen captured on Saturday and Sunday focused on the possible locations of the more than 150 hostages, who include young children, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor and foreign nationals. Hamas claimed on Friday that some of the hostages were killed as a result of Israel’s air strikes.

Speaking to the nation in an unprecedented address on the Jewish Sabbath, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said, “Today everyone knows that we’re fighting for the homeland, and we’re fighting like lions. We’re hitting our enemies with unprecedented force, but I stress: it’s only the beginning.”

Throughout Friday Israel continued pounding the Gaza Strip from the air and with artillery fire, and Hamas fired more rockets into southern and central Israel. The Palestinian health ministry reported the death toll in Gaza was more than 1,800.

Israel has also boosted forces along its northern border with south Lebanon where it is feared that the Iranian–backed Hizbullah may open a second front. Cross-border fire between Israel and Hizbullah has occurred on most days since Saturday, along with infiltrations into Israel.

Visiting US secretary of defence Lloyd Austin said in Tel Aviv on Friday that he believed Hamas’s activities are worse than what he had witnessed carried out by the Islamic State terror group a decade ago. “This is no time for neutrality, or for false equivalence, or for excuses for the inexcusable,” Mr Austin said. “There is never any justification for terrorism.”

In an unprecedented development, citing the paramount Jewish commandment to save lives, leading rabbis have given permission for planes to continue flying on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, to bring army reservists from abroad to Israel and for trains to operate to bring them to the front.