According to eyewitness reports, thousands of Palestinians began migrating from the northern Gaza Strip to Gaza City and Jabaliya in order to escape possible attacks following Israel’s call to “evacuate the area.” During this forced migration, Palestinians set out on foot with as little as they could carry, as they were unable to find any means of transportation.
Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee said on social media that residents of the Beit Hanoun area, the Menshiyye and Sheikh Zayed neighborhoods, and those forcibly displaced in the north should immediately head to Gaza City “for their safety.” Adraee claimed that Hamas and other groups were launching missile attacks on Israel from these areas.
Since October 7, many Palestinians have been forcibly displaced several times as a result of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip. From time to time, the Israeli army calls on residents of certain settlements and neighborhoods to evacuate in preparation for the attacks. While some of these forcibly displaced Palestinians have taken refugee with their relatives, others are trying to live in tents under difficult humanitarian conditions on the streets, in schools or in open areas such as parks.
Palestinians living in these areas, which lack infrastructure, sewage systems, electricity lines, communications networks and the internet, also risk being exposed to epidemics. The government media office in Gaza reported that the number of Palestinians forcibly displaced since October 7 has reached 2 million people in the Gaza Strip, which has a population of 2.3 million.
