Evacuate 1 MN civilians in north Gaza: Israel to UN

Israelrsquos military directed the evacuation on Friday of all of the hundreds of thousands of civilians living in Gaza City ahead of a feared Israel ground offensive The directive came on the heels of what the United Nations said was a warning they received from Israel to evacuate 11 million people living in the north of Gaza within 24 hoursThe Israeli military order which comes on the seventh day of a war declared by Israel following an unprecedented Hamas incursion and deadly attack directs residents of Gaza City to flee deeper south into the Gaza Strip a narrow coastal territory Israelrsquos directive charged that Hamas militants were hiding in tunnels under the cityChildren watch as civil defence responders search for victims PicAPThis is chaos no one understands what to dordquo said Inas Hamdan an officer at the UN Palestinian refugee agency in Gaza City while she grabbed whatever she could throw into her bags as the panicked shouts of her relatives could be heard around her She said all the UN staff in Gaza City and northern Gaza had been told to evacuate to RafahldquoThe United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequencesrdquo Dujarric said ldquoThe United Nations strongly appeals for any such order if confirmed to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situationrdquo the spokesman saidldquoThis evacuation is for your own safetyrdquo the Israeli military said in a warning it said was sent to Gaza City civilians The flurry of directives could signal an impending ground offensive though the Israeli military has not yet confirmed such a move On Thursday it said that while it was preparing no decision has been made Israel delivered an even broader evacuation order ldquogiving almost half of tiny Gazarsquos population 24 hours to flee to the territoryrsquos southrdquo to the UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said The Israeli military did not immediately confirm the broader evacuation The broad order for all of Gazarsquos north also applies to UN staff and to the thousands who have taken shelter in schools and other facilitiesHamas practised raid in plain sightLess than a month before Hamas fighters blew through Israelrsquos hightech ldquoIron Wallrdquo they practiced in a very public dress rehearsal A slickly produced twominute propaganda video posted to social media by Hamas on September 12 shows fighters using explosives to blast through a replica of the border gate sweep in on pickup trucks and then move building by building through a fullscale reconstruction of an Israeli town firing automatic weapons at humansilhouetted paper targetsMass protest after Friday prayers across MideastTens of thousands of Muslims demonstrated Friday across the Middle East in support of the Palestinians and to protest against the Israeli airstrikes pounding the Gaza Strip underscoring the risk of a wider regional conflict erupting as Israel prepares for a possible ground invasion therePeople gather to perform the weekly Muslim Friday prayers at Baghdadrsquos Tahrir Square during an antiIsrael demonstration PicAPFrom Amman Jordan to Yemenrsquos capital Muslims poured out onto the streets after weekly Friday prayers At AlAqsa Mosque in Jerusalem Israeli police had been permitting only older men women and children for prayers trying to prevent the potential for demonstration as tens of thousands attend on a typical Friday In Baghdad alone tens of thousands gathered in Tahrir Square in the center of Baghdad for protests called by the influential Shiite cleric and political leader Muqtada alSadrAcross Iran a supporter of Hamas and Israelrsquos regional archenemy demonstrators protested In Tehran the capital protesters burned Israeli and Ameircan flags chanting ldquoDeath to Israelrdquo ldquoDeath to Americardquo ldquoIsrael will be doomedrdquo and ldquoPalestine will be the conquerorrdquoIsraeli diplomat attacked in ChinaAn employee of the Israeli Embassy in Beijing was attacked on Friday and later hospitalised the countryrsquos Foreign Ministry said It wasnrsquot clear what sparked the attack though it comes after Israel criticised China for its statement that followed Hamasrsquos attack1300No of Israelis believed to be killed in Hamas attackThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever