The Gaza Strip is a dangerous place for Palestinians, but it’s dangerous to stay in the country: U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Halevi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
The entire Gaza Strip has become one of the most dangerous places in the world according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled or been killed as a result of the fighting with Israel. They’re warned by the Israeli military with online maps and leaflets to move to safer parts of the country. The areas considered relatively free from fighting include a tiny sliver of coastal land known as Al Mawasi, and the Rafah area along the Egyptian border.
Last week, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin gave a speech at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California, warning that Israel risks “strategic defeat” if it doesn’t protect Palestinians in Gaza.
“The center of gravity is the civilian population and if you drive them into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat,” Austin said.
Halevi said they were asked a lot about the destruction in Gaza. “It’s the answer to all those questions because our forces find weapons in almost every house, terrorists are found in many houses, and we fight them”, he said.
“These things require the use of a wide range of fire, both to damage the enemy and, of course, to protect our forces. Halevi said that they operate powerfully while still going to great efforts to minimize harm to civilians.
“Clearing operations take a very long time,” Carter said. “In areas they have already cleared they still have to conduct military operations as Hamas fighters attack their positions in these cleared areas.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ministers of his war cabinet met with some hostages released in a brief cease-fire last month after being held for weeks in Gaza by Hamas.
Released hostages castigated the Israeli government officials for claiming to have intelligence on Hamas locations yet bombing indiscriminately. They said during captivity they were more afraid of Israeli bombs than their militant captors.
NPR’s Scott Neuman and Eleanor Beardsley reported from Tel Aviv and Brian Mann from Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Anas Baba was an NPR producer in the Gaza Strip.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the IDF said on Wednesday that Israel’s air force had hit 250 targets in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, and that ground troops “continue to locate and destroy weapons, underground shafts, explosive charges and other terrorist infrastructures.”
In the statement, Israel acknowledged that ground forces were engaged in and around Khan Younis. Israel released video it said showed soldiers operating in northern Gaza.
He said that on Tuesday the Israel Defense Forces were taking part in the most intense day in terms of terrorists killed since the ground operation began.
The head of Israel’s Southern Command said at a news conference on Tuesday that they are currently in the heart of Khan Younis. Jabaliya, the site of a major refugee camp, and Shujaiya, are located in Gaza’s north. Khan Younis, considered a Hamas stronghold, is located toward the south end of the Strip.
TEL AVIV, Israel — Some of the heaviest fighting since the start of Israel’s air-and-ground assault on Gaza more than two months ago was taking place Wednesday in Khan Younis, with artillery shelling and gunfire echoing through the Palestinian territory’s second-largest city.
The Gaza Strip is not a Zone for Humanity: Israeli Military Arabic Spokesman Avichay Adraee Explains Israel’s Plan to Evaluate
Israel’s former attorney general, Avihai Mandelblit, says he thinks Israel’s intention is to ensure civilians escape harm’s way, despite the humanitarian crisis associated with urging mass evacuations to Gaza’s south.
“I’m not saying it is nice being there, but the only thing that we try to do is to protect their lives. Civilian lives will be lost if they stay in Khan Younis for such a long time. The most important thing – that they will not die ,” Mandelblit said, referring to Gaza’s second-largest city where Israel’s bombardment is focused now.
As fighting resumed in Gaza last week after a temporary pause, the Israeli military issued a statement saying that it was “providing information to residents of the Gaza Strip on movement for their safety in the next stage of the war.”
“This divides the territory of the Gaza Strip … The statement says that in order to orient yourself and understand instructions, and to flee from specific places for their safety, it is necessary to find recognizable areas.
The map came about as a result of the Biden administration’s insistence that Israel minimize civilian casualties. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, after a visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank, called on Israel to declare designated safe zones.
The lack of internet or electricity makes it hard to access the map in Gaza. People who have identified their zone based on the map have received different messages from the Israelis about whether or not they were ordered to leave.
“My house was in zone 55. Heba Usrof said the last zone on the list was 54. Heavy fighting is taking place near her hometown.
“They hit again the following day,” she says. “An Israeli soldier contacted our neighbor, instructing him to evacuate and tell everyone else to do the same.”
Israeli military Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee has been posting information on X and Facebook since the start of the war, to convince people that Hamas is to blame for the suffering of Palestinians.
He wrote on X that the main north-south road was in a battle zone and that the military was operating in the Khan Younis area. He said Israeli forces would suspend military activities in a neighborhood of Rafah until 2 p.m.
Adraee’s first announcement that there was a safe passage out of northern Gaza in early November was followed by another announcement the following day. The safe passage was rendered unsafe by Hamas gunfire, he said.
Mustafa, who only gave his first name because he was criticizing Hamas and feared retaliation, fled with his family and their belongings, from northern Gaza to Khan Younis 20 days ago, and then from Khan Younis to Rafah on Tuesday.
We were told to go south by the Israelis. We didn’t find a place to go here. We are all in the streets,” he told NPR. Hamas should have secured people before they did this. The people should have a place to hang out, and a place to sleep.
In the coming hours, the Israel Defense Forces shall commence a strong attack on your location of residence with the goal of destroying the Hamas terrorist organization.
Many cellphones in the area flashed with warnings to evacuate from Khan Younis as a “dangerous battle” was expected.
Internet and cellphone service in the Gaza Strip has been cut repeatedly. Israel, which maintains a blockade on Gaza, has declined to answer NPR’s request for comment on whether these communications cuts are deliberate.
The robocalls have been confusing to residents. Several people got calls from the Israeli military to evacuate that weren’t their neighborhood.
The U.S. demanded Israel declare safe zones to minimize civilian casualties from Israeli airstrikes in response to the surprise Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials. Palestinians and international aid groups say that those zones have been insufficient and do not provide a guaranteed shelter to residents who escape.
They are being squeezed into smaller and smaller areas as Israel pushes Palestinians to escape its air-and-ground campaign in Gaza.