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Israel Seeks to Empty Gaza City of Civilians

(Washington Post) Gerry Shih - For days, Ali Ahmed had been getting text messages from the Israeli army urging him to evacuate from Gaza City. The sound of Israeli artillery and demolition robots clearing buildings had grown louder, he recalled, and the explosions were now less than 100 yards from his tent. Ahmed's three children have begged him to move. While the Gaza City neighborhoods of Zeitoun, Shejaiya and Saftawi and the nearby city of Jabalya are emptying already, residents say, the Hamas-run Interior Ministry has urged residents to remain in their homes as long as possible. On Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces' Arabic-language spokesman, Lt.-Col. Avichay Adraee, released a video warning residents that "there is no alternative to evacuating Gaza City. Every family that moves south will get the most humanitarian aid possible, which the IDF is working to expand at this time." This week, Israeli military officials said they were rushing to finish building a new pipeline that will pump fresh water from Egypt into the Mawasi humanitarian zone, supplying 600,000 people a day. A new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution site a half-mile walk from Mawasi is also taking shape. Harel Knafo, a retired Israeli general who recently served in Gaza, said an IDF "population evacuation unit" had spent 10 years mapping out buildings on every street in Gaza and obtaining mobile phone numbers of residents and businesses on every block. The IDF has been calling residents and blaring messages from loudspeakers installed on tanks and drones to get residents to leave. The next stage has been to drop leaflets. And if that doesn't succeed, Knafo said, firing rifle rounds at building walls or tank shells at empty fields without civilians usually does. "If people can hear it [firing], they will understand we are close and they have no time left. Every step we take is done not to harm the people, while Hamas does the opposite, by threatening people not to go and even shooting at them if they try."
2025-08-31 00:00:00
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