Israel Orders Thousands More Palestinians to Leave Gaza City Outskirts

Text Messages Order Civilians to Flee Into Other Combat Zones

The ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip shows no sign of letting up, and the plausible deniability scheme of ordering Palestinian civilians out of neighborhoods without any real place for them to go is continuing apace.

Today, the Israeli military began sending text messages to thousands of Gazans in areas around the outskirts of Gaza City, ordering them to “evacuate immediately toward central Gaza City,” despite that also being under constantly Israeli attack.

Israel has noted these warnings when confronted by the massive civilian death toll of their onslaught, but as confirmed by the UN last week, there is “literally no safe place for civilians” in Gaza, and even UN-run refugee sites are being shelled.

Hundreds of thousands of Gaza civilians have been forced out of their homes by Israeli airstrikes and shelling, though with neither Israel nor Egypt allowing them in they are basically taking a wild guess which part of the strip will be the most intensely shelled any given day.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.