The evacuation of Gaza has begun following an order issued by the Israeli army to over 1 million civilians in the north.

The United Nations said it was informed by the Israeli army that some 1.1 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip had been ordered to move to the southern sector of the enclave within 24 hours and called for the order to be “rescinded” at a time when there are no humanitarian corridors.

However, the Israeli army acknowledged today that the order to remove Palestinians from northern Gaza will “take time”. “We are trying to give time and we are making a lot of efforts, and we understand that it will not take 24 hours,” army spokesman Daniel Hagari told a news conference.

Videos and photos circulating on social media show people fleeing their homes by stowing their belongings and taking what they can while fleeing in any way possible. As you can see in the images below, they are laden with bags, mattresses, and pillows. Some in cars, some on foot, some in carts, and some on donkeys are leaving the North for the South where they have no water, electricity, or fuel.

Les habitants de la ville de #Gaza évacuent leurs maisons et se dirigent vers le sud du territoire après l’avertissement de l’armée israélienne ordonnant l’évacuation sous 24 heures vers le sud de “tous les civils” de la ville de Gaza #AFPTVertical #AFP pic.twitter.com/vlHccqulLB

— Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) October 13, 2023

Israel Orders Unprecedented Evacuation of 1 Million in Gaza as Possible Ground Offensive Looms https://t.co/5OuZd7sJMz

— Military.com (@Militarydotcom) October 13, 2023

“Israel’s military ordered the evacuation Friday of more than 1 million Palestinians from the northern Gaza Strip, a move that the United Nations described as potentially “calamitous” amid heavy airstrikes and a rapidly declining humanitarian situation.” pic.twitter.com/6oVuklXaeh

— D3R R3N3 🇵🇸 (@schnufi666) October 13, 2023

Israeli army dropped leaflets – “Evacuate immediately to the south”

The Israeli army today dropped leaflets in Gaza asking residents to “immediately” leave to the south, according to AFP correspondents in the Gaza Strip.

“Evacuate your homes immediately and go south of Wadi Gaza,” the leaflets dropped by drones and seen by AFP read in Arabic

Hamas urged them to stay in their homes

Earlier today, mosques in the Gaza Strip were calling on residents to stay in their homes and defy the Israeli order, for more than a million people, to move south while the possibility of a ground invasion looms on the horizon with the risk of heavy casualties.

Any invasion could be decisive in the conflict between the Israeli army and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which on Saturday launched its bloodiest attack on the country since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

Israel has already launched its heaviest-ever air strikes on Gaza and has called up 300,000 reservists and assembled tanks near the border.

Threats of a ground invasion have evoked memories of the Nakba, the Arabic word for destruction, which refers to the 1948 war to create Israel that led to their mass displacement.

Gaza analyst Talal Okal described the Israeli relocation order as an “attempt to push the Palestinian people of Gaza into Nakba”

“As they did in 1948, when they drove people out of historic Palestine by throwing barrels of explosives on their heads, today Israel is repeating this in front of the world and on live camera feed,” Ocall told Reuters.

Hamas militants killed more than 1,300 Israelis in their surprise attack on Saturday. Israeli airstrikes, carried out in retaliation, have killed more than 1,400 people in Gaza so far, according to authorities there.

At a time when a ground invasion seems imminent, both sides are engaging in psychological warfare.

“Citizens of Gaza City, turn south for your own safety and the safety of your families and turn away from the Hamas terrorists who are using you as human shields,” the Israeli army said.

“Hamas terrorists are hiding in Gaza City in tunnels under houses and inside buildings inhabited by innocent Gazan civilians,” it added.

A well-known Hamas cleric in Gaza, scholar Wael Al-Zard, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, Hamas said. His son was killed a few weeks ago during protests along the border fence.

Reactions to the evacuation order “within 24 hours”

“Giving an evacuation order to a million people in Gaza when there is no safe place for them to go is not an effective warning. The roads are rubble, fuel is scarce and the main hospital is in the evacuation zone,” said Clive Baldwin, senior legal adviser at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

“This order does not change Israel’s obligations in military operations to never target civilians and to take all measures it can to minimize harm to them. World leaders must speak out now before it is too late,” he added.

Inside Shifa Hospital, the largest of Gaza’s 13 public hospitals, a man arrived to ask about dozens of relatives and friends who were evacuated there from the area of an apartment building bombed by Israel in the Beech refugee camp.