Tens of thousands have fled northern Gaza after Israel issues warning to leave: UN agency

Tens of thousands in Gaza are estimated to have fled south after Israel gave Palestinians 24 hours notice to evacuate from the enclave's north before an expected ground offensive, UNhumanitarian office OCHA said on Friday.

Prior to the evacuation order, more than 400,000 Palestinians had been internally displaced due to the hostilities, the UN agency said on its website.

Israel said its infantry and tanks had carried out raids inside the Gaza Strip on Friday, its first announcement of a shift from an air war to ground operations to root out Hamas fighters a week after their deadly rampage in southern Israel.

Some Gaza residents were abandoning homes on footto escape from the path of an Israeli onslaught, after Israel ordered more than a million people to leave the northern half of the Gaza Strip within 24 hours. Hamas told them not to go.

Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said troops backed by tanks had mounted raids to attack Palestinian rocket crews and seek information on the location of hostages, the first official account of ground troops in Gaza since the crisis began.

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Several thousand residents could be seen on roads heading out of the northern part of the Gaza Strip, but it was impossible to tell their numbers. Many others said they would not go.

Hamas, which controls the densely populated Palestinian territory, vowed to fight until the last drop of blood. The Israeli military said a significant number of Gazans had begun moving southwards "to save themselves."

Gaza authorities said 70 people were killed and 200 were wounded when Israel struck cars and trucks carrying people fleeing the north of the strip for the south. Reuters could not independently verify the reported incident.

The United Nations and other organizations warned of a disaster if so many people were forced to flee.

"The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,"UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said, prompting a rebuke from Israel, which said the UNshould condemn Hamas and support Israel's right to self-defence.

Global Affairs Canada said in a statement on Friday that "the protection of civilians is paramount."

"We call on all parties to spare the civilian population from harm, and to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law in all circumstances," the statement read.

Order sparks confusion

The evacuation order, which includes Hamas-controlled Gaza City, home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, sparked confusion among civilians and aid workers already running from Israeli airstrikes and contending with a total siege and a territory-wide power blackout.

WATCH: Time running out to prevent humanitarian catastrophe, says WHO:

Moving severely ill patients out of northern Gaza will be 'death sentence,' says WHO

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Asking health workers to move severely ill people out of northern Gaza is 'beyond cruel' and amounts to a 'death sentence,' says WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic.

A swarm of leaflets stating "Evacuate immediately" rained over Gaza City.

"Forget about food, forget about electricity, forget about fuel. The only concern now is just if you'll make it, if you're going to live," said Nebal Farsakh, a spokespersonfor the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza City, breaking into heaving sobs.

The UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said it had moved its central operations post and international staff to Gaza's south and urged Israel to spare its shelters.

Safe zones being discussed

The United States said it was discussing with relief agencies how "safe areas" could be set up for civilians in Gaza.

"One of the things that we did discuss with [Israel] was the need to protect civilian lives in Gaza, the need to establish some safe areas, where civilians could relocate to be safe from Israel's legitimate security operations," said a senior U.S. State Department official in briefing reporters.

WATCH | More scenes of devastation emerge:

Israel-Hamas war: Mounting devastation and anxiety

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Duration 3:52

Warning: Video contains graphic details | Aid groups warn of disaster in Gaza as relentless and ferocious airstrikes continue. In Israel, more scenes of devastation emerge, and journalists are brought to the site of the Supernova music festival, where at least 260 people were killed.

"So we've been engaged with the International Committee for the Red Cross, the UN relief agencies to work through the details of what that might look like. It's still work that's coming together. The Israelis are committed to it," the official said.

Israel has bombarded Gaza non-stop since a weekend attack in which Hamas fighters stormed into the country's south and massacred hundreds of people.More than 1,300 people in Israel have been killed, includingwomen, childrenand the elderly, as well asyoung people at a music festival. Militants also took some 150 people hostage.

The Israeli military warned residents of a village near the Lebanese border on Friday to hole up at home and lock doors and windows, saying a suspected armed infiltration was underway.

The alert took place in Hanita, 500 metres from the border and opposite the Lebanese community of Aalma El-Chaeb.

Gaza authorities say morethan 1,800 people more than half of whom were women andindividuals under the age of 18have been killed in Israel's retaliatory attacks.

Israel has called on Hamas to free the hostages. The militant groupsaid Israel's airstrikes in the last 24 hours have killed 13 of the hostages, including foreigners. It did not providethe nationality of the foreigners. There was no immediate Israeli comment.

The Israeli military sent one evacuation order directly Friday morning, warning the residents of Gaza City to flee south in the narrow coastal territory, which is just 40 kilometreslong. Israel said it needed to target Hamas's military infrastructure, much of which is buried deep underground.

Hamas militants operate in civilian areas, where Israel has long accused them of using Palestinians as human shields. A mass evacuation of civilians, if carried out, would leave their fighters exposed.

U.S. support

U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Israel on Friday, a day after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken travelled to the country. The visits, along with shipments of weapons that the U.S. has put no preconditions on, have offered a green light for Israel to drive ahead with its retaliation.

"The U.S. Department of Defence stands fully ready to deploy additional assets if necessary," Austin told a news conference in Tel Aviv with his Israeli counterpart,Yoav Gallant.

A ground offensive in densely populated and impoverished Gaza would likely bring even higher casualties on both sides.

Hamas told Palestinians to ignore an evacuation order it said was "psychological warfare" and an attempt to displace them.

Jordan's King Abdullah warned Israel against any attempt to forcibly displace Palestinians, even internally. In a statement published by the Royal Court's account on social media platform X, former known as Twitter, Abdullah said there should be no "spillover" of the ongoing crisis into neighbouring countries.

The only border crossing not controlled by Israel, into Egypt, has been closed due to airstrikes. Egypt is opposed to resettling Palestinians both because of the costs involved and because it would undermine their quest for an independent state.

"This is the cause of all causes, the cause of all Arabs. It is important that the [Palestinian] people remain steadfast and present on their land," Egyptian President Abdel-Fattahel-Sisi said on Thursday.

Protest turns deadly in West Bank

Already, at least 423,000 people nearly one in five Gazans have been forced from their homes by Israeli airstrikes, the UN has said.

"This is chaos, no one understands what to do," said Inas Hamdan, an officer at the UNagency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza City, while she grabbed whatever she could throw into her bags as the panicked shouts of her relatives could be heard around her. She said all UNstaff in Gaza City and northern Gaza had been told to evacuate south to Rafah.

Farsakh, of the Palestinian Red Crescent, said there was no way so many people could be safely moved especially those with ailments.

"What will happen to our patients?" she asked. "We have wounded, we have elderly, we have children who are in hospitals."

Farsakh said many of the medics were refusing to evacuate hospitals and abandon patients. Instead, she said, they called their colleagues to say goodbye.

In the West Bank, three Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces during protests in support of Gaza, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Friday.

In addition to the demonstration there, protests were taking place in the Middle East and beyond on Friday in support of Palestinians, including in Baghdad, Amman, the capital of Jordan, and the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka.