Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the army to capture the Hamas stronghold against its generals’ advice
The Israeli military said on Saturday that Palestinians in Gaza City, the enclave’s largest urban area, should leave for the south, warning that the military was operating throughout the city.
The assault threatens to displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians sheltering there from nearly two years of fighting. Before the war, around a million people, nearly half of Gaza’s population, lived in the city.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on social media that residents should leave the city for a designated coastal area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, assuring those fleeing that they would be able to receive food, medical care and shelter there.
He said: “Take this opportunity to move early to the [Al-Mawasi] humanitarian zone and join the thousands of people who have already gone there.”
