UN urges Israel to call off northern Gaza evacuation order

UNITED NATIONS, UNITED STATES — The United Nations was informed that Israel has told 1.1 million residents of northern Gaza to relocate to the south of the territory within 24 hours, a UN spokesperson told AFP Thursday, calling for the order to be rescinded on humanitarian grounds.

UN officials working in Gaza were informed by the Israeli military “that the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary-general told AFP, adding that this amounts to approximately 1.1 million people.

Dujarric said the same order applied to all UN staff and those sheltered in UN facilities –- including schools, health centers and clinics.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) is sheltering more than 60 percent of the 423,000 people displaced in recent days in the Gaza Strip.

It was not immediately clear how many people were currently located north of Wadi Gaza.

“The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” Dujarric said.

“The United Nations strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation.”

On Saturday, Hamas gunmen swept into small towns, kibbutzim and a music festival in Israel, indiscriminately killing more than 1,200 people and taking about 150 hostages.

Israel has retaliated by raining air and artillery strikes on Gaza — a densely populated enclave of 2.3 million people — flattening buildings and killing more than 1,400 people, many of them civilians.

A Security Council meeting on the conflict has been called for Friday.

— AFP