Gaza on brink of ‘devastating humanitarian catastrophe’
Iran: New front against Israel possible
The Gaza Strip is on the brink of a “devastating humanitarian catastrophe” as the Israeli regime has intensified its heavy and indiscriminate bombardment on the besieged Palestinian territory, which has killed nearly 1,800 Palestinians so far.
The Israeli Army has ordered the evacuation of all civilians living in Gaza City and in the north of the Gaza Strip ahead of an expected ground offensive on the Palestinian region after it called up 300,000 reservists and moved forces, tanks and armor to the southern desert area around Gaza.
UN officials in Gaza “were informed by their liaison officers in the Israeli military that the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement in New York.
“This amounts to approximately 1.1 million people,” Dujarric added, or nearly half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population.
Dujarric said the UN “considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences.”
‘Fake propaganda’
Salama Marouf, head of the Hamas government media office, said the relocation warning was an attempt by Israel “to broadcast and pass on fake propaganda, aiming to sow confusion among citizens and harm our internal cohesion.”
He added: “We urge our citizens not to engage in these attempts.”
Since Saturday, Israel has been pounding Gaza in retaliation for a Hamas attack in Israel that has killed at least 1,300 people, the deadliest attack in Israeli history. At least 1,799 people have also been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, said the Health Ministry in Gaza on Friday.
The ministry reported in a statement the “martyrdom of 1,799 citizens including 583 children and 351 women,” adding that more than 7,000 people have been wounded.
At least nine Palestinians were also killed by Israeli fire across the occupied West Bank during rallies in solidarity with Gaza, the Health Ministry said.
The Israeli Army said its “fighter jets struck 750 military targets in the northern Gaza Strip overnight”.
Israeli fighter jets and drones have levelled entire blocks and destroyed thousands of buildings.
Total siege
Israel has cut off water, food and power supplies to Gaza in a total siege it has vowed will not end until all hostages are freed.
The territory was already under a land, air and sea blockade since 2006.
Any Israeli ground operation is complicated by Hamas’s holding – according to Israel – an estimated 150 Israeli, foreign and dual-nationals who were taken back to Gaza during the attack.
Hamas on Friday said 13 hostages, including foreigners, had been killed in Israeli strikes.
New fronts against Israel
The continued air strikes and blockage on Gaza has drawn warnings from Iran.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned on Friday that fighting against the Israeli regime may expand to new fronts.
“Some European officials asked me if there were any chances that new fronts might open up against the Zionist regime,” Amir-Abdollahian said on Thursday in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, his second stop on a regional tour that has already taken him to Iraq.
“I told them as far as the Zionists keep up their war crimes, there exists every prospect that other resistance movements [may enter the war],” he added.
Amir-Abdollahian has started the tour as means of talking with ranking officials in the destination countries about the developments that have been unfolding in the region, especially the Israeli regime’s crimes against Gaza.
He called Israel’s displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinians as part of the warfare, and its concomitant enforcement of an all-out siege on Gaza, “an organized war crime” on the part of the occupying regime.
“Continuation of these war crimes will be followed by other reactions on other axes, for which the Zionist regime and its supporters would be responsible,” he added.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement on Friday said it would be fully prepared to join its ally Hamas in the war against Israel when the time was right.
“We, as Hezbollah, are contributing to the confrontation and will (continue) to contribute to it within our vision and plan,” Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem told a pro-Palestinian rally in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
“We are fully prepared, and when the time comes for action, we will take it,” he said.
An outreach by “major countries, Arab countries, and envoys from the United Nations, directly and indirectly, asking us not to interfere in the battle, will not affect us,” he said, adding, “Hezbollah knows its duties”.
Israel has traded fire with Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions in Lebanon in recent days, although the tit-for-tat attacks have remained limited.
US support for Israel
On the other side, the US has sent additional munitions to Israel and deployed an aircraft carrier battle group to the eastern Mediterranean in a show of support, while warning Israel’s other enemies not to enter the war.
On Friday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, also on a solidarity visit to Israel, pledged “iron-clad” backing for Israel in its war.
In London, the UK said it was sending two Royal Navy ships and surveillance aircraft to the eastern Mediterranean to support Israel and “ensure regional stability”.