During the Israel–Hamas war, the Israeli military ordered most residents of Gaza to evacuate their homes, displacing hundreds of thousands of people and contributing to a broader humanitarian crisis in the territory.[4][5] It is the largest displacement of Palestinians in 75 years.[6][a] 90 percent of Gaza's population has been displaced at least once since October 2023.[8] Palestinians have described the evacuation as the "second Nakba."[9]
The first evacuation order was given on 13 October 2023, one week after Hamas led an attack on Israel from Gaza. Israel officials told the 1.1 million Gazans who lived north of the Wadi Gaza, including Gaza City, to evacuate within 24 hours.[10]
Israel's ground invasion of Gaza began on 27 October 2023. By 3 November 2023, some 800,000 to 1 million people had moved to the southern Gaza Strip, while 350,000 to 400,000 remained in the north.[11] Israel targeted Palestinians during the evacuation and attacked and bombarded them in the southern Gaza Strip.[2][12][13][14][15] Evacuees described the evacuation corridors as unsafe, and full of terror from Israeli soldiers and dead bodies along the road.[16]
On 1 December 2023, Israel began issuing evacuation orders across the entire Gaza Strip, dividing the territory into 620 zones.[17] UN officials said Gazans were being pushed into an area one-third the size of the total territory.[18] Some 80 percent of the territory's population was at the time in the southern Gaza Strip.[19] In May 2024, evacuation orders across the Gaza Strip resulted in at least 900,000 people moving in just one week.[20] By June 2024, an estimated two-thirds of Gaza's population was in an area less than one-fifth of the Strip, and by July 2024, an estimated 83 percent of the Strip was placed under evacuation orders.[21][22][23] By August 2024, Israel was issuing so many evacuation orders that some residents no longer complied with them, believing nowhere in Gaza was safer than another.[24][b] In other instances, civilians were unable to comply with Israel's evacuation orders because there was no longer any space left in the designated "safe zone".[26]
^"Israeli military warns Gazans to relocate south for safety". The Jerusalem Post. October 13, 2023. Archived from the original on November 5, 2023. Retrieved November 6, 2023. The call to evacuate came ahead of an anticipated ground invasion of the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing war with Hamas.
^Sultany, Nimer (9 May 2024). "A Threshold Crossed: On Genocidal Intent and the Duty to Prevent Genocide in Palestine". Journal of Genocide Research: 1–26. doi:10.1080/14623528.2024.2351261.
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