Palestinians living in the ruins of Gaza City have been bombarded with Israeli leaflets ordering them out, after Israel said it was about to obliterate the area in an assault to wipe out Hamas, causing panic and confusion, Reuters reports.
“I say to the residents of Gaza, take this opportunity and listen to me carefully: you have been warned — get out of there!” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
The Israeli military airdropped leaflets with evacuation orders on residents standing amid the rubble, who say there is no safe place to go. Some said they would have no choice but to leave for the south, but many said they would stay, and there were no immediate signs of a mass exodus.
Anxiety was spreading through a tent area in Gaza City housing displaced cancer patients.
“There’s no place left, not in the south, nor the north, nothing. We’ve become completely trapped,” said Bajess al-Khaldi, one of a group of displaced cancer patients housed in a tented area, as people looked on at the rubble of several buildings destroyed in an Israeli attack.