In a new escalation of the genocide that the Israeli occupation has waged against the Gaza Strip for nearly 22 months, the Israeli army on Tuesday issued immediate evacuation orders for sixteen areas in Gaza City and the northern governorate, confirming the continuation of the policy of forcibly displacing civilians as part of a clear plan for ethnic cleansing and depopulation.
The new evacuation orders target densely populated neighbourhoods, including eastern Zeitoun, Turkman, Daraj, Sabra and Tuffah in Gaza City, as well as Jabalia town, Jabalia camp, Rawda, Tel al-Zaatar and other areas in the north.
The Israeli army instructed residents to move towards the so-called “safe” Mawasi area, despite its repeated targeting of displaced civilians there and the deadly massacres that have killed and injured hundreds, most of them women and children.
These warnings come in the context of a systematic campaign to recycle mass displacement, where no place in Gaza remains safe. Since March, the occupation has imposed displacement orders over more than 81% of Gaza’s territory, forcing hundreds of thousands of civilians into overcrowded, destroyed areas, makeshift shelters, or the open air, seeking refuge in ruined buildings or fragile tents that offer no protection from bombardment.
According to international legal standards, these policies constitute a pattern of genocide, as repeated attacks directly and deliberately target civilians’ lives through bombing, starvation and forced displacement, resulting so far in the killing of more than 197,000 Palestinians, with over 11,000 missing, alongside a famine that has claimed the lives of children suffering from hunger, disease and siege.
The targeting of hospitals, schools, bakeries and shelters, alongside the blocking of humanitarian aid, amounts to crimes against humanity that require international criminal accountability.
Despite repeated calls and demands from the International Court of Justice to halt the aggression, Israel continues its crimes, emboldened by international silence and the complicity of major powers, compounding the suffering of Gaza’s population and placing humanity before a profound moral and historical test that will not be erased from the memory of free peoples.
What is unfolding in Gaza is not merely war—it is a fully-fledged genocide, perpetrated in broad daylight and before the eyes of the world.
