Early Friday, October 13, kept awake by a night of intensive bombing, the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip passed the news from message to message, incredulous and terrified: the Israeli army had just demanded the evacuation of the north of the enclave. Confused, some were busy trying to figure out where to go, others were calling their loved ones to say goodbye.
No one was ready and many doubted the contradictory information reaching them. “We are being asked to go south. We are all dressed, we have prepared bags and things, if necessary we are ready to go out during the day. God, leave us alive”, worries Dina Ajrami, who lives in the center of the Gaza Strip, on the phone. A resident of central Gaza, Amina Bukhari, is afraid of misunderstanding: ” Where can we go ? There are bombings everywhere, no way to leave now. The noises are terrifying. I am at the end of my nerves, horrified. »
24 hours to leave
The Israeli army demanded this morning “the evacuation of all civilians in Gaza City from their homes” to an area south of Wadi Gaza, in the center of the Palestinian enclave under total Israeli blockade; she gave residents 24 hours to move. “This evacuation is for your own safety, the army press release said. You will be able to return to Gaza City only when another announcement allowing it is issued. » Hamas authorities in the enclave immediately denounced “false propaganda”. “We invite you not to respond to such false news, to stay at home and show resilience in the face of this dirty psychological war waged by the Israeli occupation”it is indicated.
Since the Hamas attack on October 7, with the infiltration of its fighters into Israeli territory which left 1,300 dead in Israel, the Jewish state has been bombing the Gaza Strip controlled by the Islamist movement with unprecedented intensity. More than 1,500 Gazans were killed according to an initial provisional report; no place on this thin strip of land of 365 km2 was spared from the bombings. Bombs are dropped on civilian homes in densely populated areas, most of the time without warning. In recent days, schools, universities, ambulances and rescue workers have been targeted by strikes in the enclave which has no shelters. On Friday morning, the armed wing of Hamas claimed that “thirteen hostages, including foreigners”had been killed in Israeli strikes over the past 24 hours.
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