Israel to UN: Northern Gaza should evacuate within 24 hours

JERUSALEM, Israel 

Palestinians living in the northern Gaza Strip scrambled Friday as the clock ticked down on an Israeli order to evacuate to the southern part of the Strip within 24 hours, ahead of what many fear will be a major Israeli ground offensive into the Hamas-controlled territory.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed early Friday that it had notified residents in Gaza City to leave for "their own safety and protection."

"You will be able to return to Gaza City only when another announcement permitting it is made," IDF spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said in a live-streamed briefing on the social media platform X.

Hamas has called for everyone to "remain steadfast in your homes and to stand firm in the face of this disgusting psychological war waged by the occupation," according to The Associated Press.

Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour told reporters Friday that Israel's evacuation order amounts to "ethnic cleansing" of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have nowhere to flee.

"We don't know what's happening at this moment in the northern part of Gaza where the Israeli occupying forces told people to evacuate — people don't know where to go," Mansour told reporters. "There is no safe place in the Gaza Strip."

In Tel Aviv, Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee told Alhurra, an Arabic language satellite TV sister organization of the Voice of America, "In every sense of the word, we are escalating our raids and attacks on Hamas' hideouts in the Gaza Strip, and this is what is actually happening, after we targeted geographical areas that Hamas exploited to establish its hideouts there, such as Al-Rimal neighborhood, Beit Hanoun, and so on.

"We are now warning the residents of Gaza City and calling on them to leave those areas because they are being used by Hamas to lead and direct military operations against Israel. Therefore, as we said and announced clearly, Israel will intensify its strikes in this region," Adraee said.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke to reporters on his way to a closed-door meeting of the U.N. Security Council Friday afternoon.

"Moving more than 1 million people across a densely populated warzone to a place with no food, water or accommodation, when the entire territory is under siege, is extremely dangerous – and in some cases, simply not possible," he said.

Israel put Gaza under a "complete siege" Monday, in response to Saturday's deadly Hamas attacks, which killed more than 1,300 Israelis.

Palestinians are currently without electricity, water and fuel, making a mass evacuation even more risky and complex. Israeli strikes have killed about 1,800 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry.