Palestinians continued to scramble to escape Gaza on Saturday as Israel warned that its military is going to strike the besieged city very soon, reported the Associated Press.
The Israeli military dropped leaflets from the air and intensified its warnings on social media for the 1.1 million Gaza residents to move to areas south of Wadi Gaza, which is the southern boundary of the city.
On Friday, Israel had ordered civilians in Gaza to evacuate and only return when the military makes another announcement allowing them back. This came six days after Hamas, which runs Gaza, launched a multi-pronged attack. In response, Israel declared a siege on Gaza and launched a series of airstrikes. It also stopped water, fuel and power supplies to Gaza.
At least 2,329 Palestinians have been killed and 9,714 injured since the war broke out, reported Al Jazeera. The toll on the Israeli side stood at 1,300.
At the first cabinet meeting of Israel’s new national emergency government in Tel Aviv on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “demolish” Hamas, whom he described as “bloodthirsty monsters”.
In a video posted on Sunday morning, Israeli military spokesman John Conricus said that Palestinians in Gaza were not their enemy.
“The important thing here to focus on is that we will commence significant military operations only once we see that civilians have left the area,” Conricus was quoted as saying by CNN. “It’s really important that people in Gaza know we’ve been very, very generous with the time.”
In another address, Israel’s chief military spokesperson Rear-Admiral Daniel Hagari accused Hamas of trying to use civilians as human shields and issued a fresh appeal to Gaza residents to move south.
Israel’s military has stated that it has killed two Hamas commanders – Merad Abu Merad, who was the head of the Hamas aerial system, and Ali Qadi, a company commander of a commando force, reported Reuters. The two were reportedly behind the Hamas attack on Israel.
Meanwhile, Iran has called on Israel to stop its attacks on Gaza, warning that the war might expand to other parts of West Asia if Hezbollah joined the battle. That would make Israel suffer “a huge earthquake”, said Hossein Amirabdollahian, Iran’s minister of foreign affairs.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi also said that Israel’s actions in Gaza have gone “beyond the scope of self-defence” and that it must “cease its collective punishment of the people of Gaza”, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Indians being evacuated
The fourth special flight carrying 247 Indians left from Israel on Saturday, reported PTI.
On Wednesday, New Delhi launched “Operation Ajay”, under which the government is arranging special chartered flights for those who want to return to India. The Indian Embassy in Tel Aviv had announced that two special flights will operate from Ben Gurion airport on Saturday.
The first flight left around 5.40 pm local time. The second flight with 274 Indian nationals took off at 11.45 pm local time and the third batch of 197 Indian nationals left around 5.40 pm local time.
About 18,000 Indian citizens were residing in Israel when the war broke out. On October 7, a woman from Kerala named Sheeja Anandan was injured in a missile strike on the city of Ashkelon in southern Israel. She was working as a caregiver in the West Asian country.
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