Hamas’s sickening ‘don’t flee’ decree to 1.1m Gaza residents
Israel is giving 1.1 million people hours to leave northern Gaza or face the risk of getting caught in a military ground offensive.
Israel is giving 1.1 million people hours to leave northern Gaza or face the risk of getting caught in a military ground offensive, as officials from the Jewish homeland say their government will use “whatever means necessary” to destroy the Hamas terrorists.
But the Palestinian terror group is warning residents in the enclave not to leave their homes despite the looming incursion and the threat of hundreds of civilian casualties, with Palestinians ordered to “remain steadfast in your homes and to stand firm in the face of this disgusting psychological war waged by the occupation”.
The stand-off has heightened fears of a humanitarian disaster, with a statement on the Hamas website calling Israel “delusional” for thinking people would flee.
“Scenes of migration and displacement are a thing of the past and won’t be repeated, except with the victorious return of our people to our occupied land,” the Hamas statement said.
By Friday evening (AEDT), the Israel Defence Forces said that dozens of its jets had hit 750 military targets in the northern Gaza Strip in the previous 25 hours, wreaking havoc on terrorist compounds, command centres, tunnels and weapons storage warehouses. Soldiers from an Israeli special forces unit also targeted a military command centre in Gaza City being used to fire rockets into Israel, the IDF said.
Both the US and Europe are ramping up support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military offensive, with key Biden administration officials now in Israel and both Britain and France pledging more support.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has committed several Royal Navy vessels and RAF spy planes to the IDF.
French President Emmanuel Macron told his people in a televised address that any attempt to justify Hamas’s campaign of terror was a “strategic, political and moral error”.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin landed in Israel on Friday for meetings with Israeli officials. His visit followed that of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who underscored the importance of Israel avoiding civilian casualties before a tour of Arab countries including Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
“It’s our determination – and that of Israel as well – that there not be a second front or a third front,” Mr Blinken said in Tel Aviv.
Anthony Albanese said there were about 1600 Australians in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank who had registered their interest in returning to Australia, although it was not expected that all would choose to come home.
The Prime Minister said there were 19 Australians in Gaza, including a family of four from Adelaide that the government was trying to get out into Egypt through the southern border.
“Obviously the situation on the ground is evolving,” he said. “I would urge anyone who wishes to leave, to not delay. I would urge anyone who wishes to leave to ensure they are registered with us, that is, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.”
The Israeli government is preparing for “every possible scenario” and officials are conscious of the risks of the conflict escalating given the potential of intervention from Lebanon’s Hezbollah in the north. The UN said it was informed of the mass relocation order from Israel shortly before midnight on Thursday (Friday 3pm AEDT), six days after Hamas terrorists killed more than 1200 people in Israel and took about 150 hostages in the deadliest attack on the country since its creation in 1948.
It warned the relocation task was “impossible” and implored Israel to rescind the order, which applies to all UN staff and Gazans sheltered at UN facilities, including schools and health centres.
Israel has rained air and artillery strikes into Gaza for six days, claiming more than 1400 lives and displacing more than 400,000 people in the crowded strip, which is home to 2.3 million people.
Australia’s ambassador to Washington, Kevin Rudd, said Australia had a responsibility to stay “rock solid” with the US as the world responded to the troika of challenges presented by the Israel-Hamas conflict, the ongoing war in Ukraine and the threat posed by China in the Indo-Pacific. In a speech at an American-Australia Leadership Dialogue event in Washington on Friday (AEDT), Dr Rudd, who listed Hamas as a terrorist group as prime minister, warned the organisation was “the very face of evil” and that “a leopard does not change its spots”.
“The burden of American strategic leadership as the world’s remaining superpower is to deal with all of these challenges simultaneously,” Dr Rudd said. “But the responsibility, in the same breath, for allies of the United States like Australia is to be rock solid with the United States as it confronts each and every one of these challenges … and that is where the government of Australia proudly stands today.”
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Friday that the government would provide further assistance to Australians being evacuated from Israel to London on two Qantas flights through new arrangements allowing them to return home to Australia via Singapore free of charge.
Qantas said it would operate a dedicated flight from London following a request from the government, with the service due to land in Sydney on Wednesday morning. In addition, the Albanese government has organised two flights to help affected Australians departing Ben Gurion Airport, near Tel Aviv, travel to Dubai. The government has faced anger from some Australians stuck in Israel that it has not been doing enough to help them to get home.
Dozens of Israeli Australian dual citizens are also returning to Tel Aviv to participate in the war effort as part of the mobilisation of 300,000 army reserves, as the Israel Defence Forces aims to destroy all the Gaza-based terrorist organisation’s military infrastructure.
The Israeli government has chartered planes to fly some dual nationals back to the country ahead of the expected ground assault on Gaza, with additional army reservists flying back via commercial means.
Yaniv Kahana, a 37-year-old Israeli Australian dual citizen who spent 4½ years in the Israeli army and remained active in the military reserve until he moved to Australia in 2015, left Sydney to return to his homeland on Monday night after contacting his old unit. The IT consultant, who will now serve as an infantry unit captain during the unfolding conflict, told The Weekend Australian on Friday that he “couldn’t stay in Australia watching from the sidelines.”
“I don’t know if I could live with that fact,” Mr Kahana said. “I landed here at Wednesday 10pm Australian time … I made sure to get called. That’s the only way to get a place on the plane. You have to be called.”
“I am protecting my people.”
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