Palestinians ahead of Israeli ground invasion amid humanitarian disaster fears
More than one million Palestinians have been ordered to flee ahead of an expected bloody Israeli ground invasion of Gaza, sparking fears of a major humanitarian disaster.
As more horror from Hamas’ massacre of Israelis emerged, north Gaza was told to head to the strip’s south to make way for Israel’s main offensive against the network. They were ordered to evacuate Gaza City and nearby Beit Hanoun and take a preplanned route to Khan Younis in the strip’s south to avoid attacks.
If obeyed the unprecedented order puts half of Gaza on the move, threatening what the UN branded a deadly calamity and mass panic among civilians. It is believed some civilians were on the move tonight after the Israeli Defence Force warned them in messages: “Civilians of Gaza City, evacuate south for your own safety and the safety of your families and distance yourself from Hamas terrorists who are using you as human shields.
Israeli Security patrol the streets of East Jerusalem (Tim Merry/Mirror)“In the following days the IDF will continue to operate significantly in Gaza City and make extensive efforts to avoid harming civilians.” But U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric branded the mass evacuation impossible without "devastating humanitarian consequences."
Hamas, facing fresh proof of accusations of beheadings of babies and desecration and horrific defiling of dead Israelis, claimed it was a trick and that locals should stay put. Over 3,000 have now been killed in the war. The toll in Gaza has risen to 1,799 with 7,388 wounded by strikes and 1,300 Israelis killed in the Hamas raids or dead from rocket attacks, with 3,000 wounded so far.
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The evacuation order, which includes Gaza City, home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, sparked widespread panic among civilians and aid workers. Desperate innocents are running from airstrikes, suffering a siege, facing an impossible choice - flee the strikes and face the wrath of Hamas or stay and become human shields.
Mirror defence editor Chris Hughes in Jerusalem (Tim Merry/Mirror)Sobbing Nebal Farsakh, spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza City, said: "Forget about food, forget about electricity, forget about fuel. The only concern now is just if you'll make it, if you're going to live.” Meanwhile Israel has come under a barrage of hundreds of thousands of rockets - in the latest salvo 150 were fired in the southern city of Ashkelon.
Thousands of Israeli troops are apparently preparing to advance on Gaza, hoping to rescue as many of the 130 hostages as possible as daily the depravity of Hamas’ massacre gets worse. Gut-wrenching evidence, not revealed until now, has been seen in official videos taken of the aftermath of the Hamas massacre after more than 2000 fighters broke out of Gaza on Saturday.
The Daily Mirror team reporting on the war in Israel has details of the horror too depraved to be revealed in a newspaper, including corpses sexually defiled, burned and babies beheaded. In one video bloodied and living Israelis captives are seen cowering next to a large number of corpses of fellow citizens who have been slaughtered before them.
It also includes beheaded soldiers, Hamas parading the corpse, a dead victim having his eyes gouged out and in a new horror - an Israeli soldier decapitated to death. The war has in six days sent tensions soaring with the threat of a wider Middle Eastern conflict over Israel’s retaliation against Hamas, which is also killing innocents.
Hezbollah deputy Naim Qassem told a cheering Beirut crowd the group was ready to join the fight and would “contribute” to the fight against its southern border neighbour Israel. This has fuelled major fears of a large-scale Hezbollah attack from the north - if and perhaps when Israel launches its ground offensive against Hamas.
But there have been missiles fired over the Israel- Lebanon border in recent days. There were reports a journalist was killed and three were injured in an Israeli strike on a car in Alma al-Shaab, Lebanon. Weekly Muslim prayers brought protests and tensions ran high in Jerusalem's Old City.
Israeli forces launched a massive clampdown in Jerusalem (Tim Merry/Mirror)Islamic officials managing the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, said Israel is barring all Palestinian men under the age of 50. In one incident police allowed just a Palestinian teenage girl and her mother into the compound out of 20 worshippers who tried to get in, some of them even over the age of 50.
Young Palestinian men refused entry gathered at the steps near Lion's Gate, until police shouted at them and shepherded them out of the Old City altogether. Seething local Ahmad Barbour, 57, said: "We can't live, we can't breathe, they are killing everything that is good within us. Everything that is forbidden to us is allowed to them.”
The mosque sits in a hilltop compound sacred to both Jews and Muslims and is the third-holiest site in Islam and stands in a spot known to Jews as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. Israeli forces launched a massive clampdown in Jerusalem, fearing a Hamas- ordered “day of rage” and violence on the streets.
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Israeli Army fires shells into Gaza (Tim Merry/Mirror)It followed days of shootings here as tension has been stirred up by the horror of the war. Mounted police bristling with automatic weapons and heavily-armed troops swamped the al-Aqsa Mosque area - the epicentre of Hamas’ call to arms.
One local who only gave his name as Issam told me close to the al-Aqsa: “Everyone is terrified to come today because of the security here, there are many restrictions.” We saw a group of 20 local youths praying together in the street on mats close to the mosque, watched by Israel’s security forces, as tension runs high everywhere.
During the night unlit helicopters had buzzed east Jerusalem as police launched a manhunt for a gunman who attacked a local police station. Sirens blared for hours as the search intensified but rumours and counter-rumour are overtaking each other, the streets piano-wire tense over fears of more fighting.
Israeli Defence Force warned Palestinians in north Gaza to flee their homes (Tim Merry/Mirror)Close to the al-Aqsa mosque Israeli forces moved in loose formation around the area trying to plug gaps in security and to ward off any threats. There was talk of flashpoints with tear gas and flashbangs used against rioters in the city. I asked one police officer if anything had happened so far by midday and he shook his head, Young Palestinian men refused entry gathered at the steps near Lion's Gate, their eyes downcast, until police shouted at them and shepherded them out of the Old City.
Police later fired tear gas in the Old City and east Jerusalem. Medics treated six wounded people, with at least one beaten up by officers. In the West Bank there was gunfire. Tens of thousands of Muslims demonstrated across the Middle East against Israeli airstrikes underscoring the risk of a wider regional conflict erupting.
From Amman, Jordan, to Yemen's capital of Sanaa, Muslims protested after weekly Friday prayers. In Baghdad, tens of thousands gathered for protests. Across Iran, a supporter of Hamas, demonstrators protested. After prayers in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, some worshippers stepped on American and Israeli flags, in a sign of disrespect, screaming: "Stop killing innocent Palestinians!"
Israeli troops are apparently preparing to advance on Gaza (Tim Merry/Mirror)None of this helps the people of Gaza, whose Health Ministry said it was not possible to evacuate wounded from hospitals. But it may fuel a further explosion of violence, introducing more sides in a seemingly escalating conflict. In Gaza the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said it was not evacuating schools, where hundreds of thousands have taken shelter.
Asked whether the army would protect hospitals, U.N. shelters and other civilian locations, Hagari, the Israeli military spokesperson, warned: "It's a war zone." He added: "If Hamas prevents residents from evacuating, the responsibility lies with them." But already, at least 423,000 people - nearly one in five Gazans - have been forced from their homes. Neighbouring Egypt has reinforced its border with Gaza and prevent any breaches.
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