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The United Nations said early on Friday it had been told by the Israeli military that some 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza should relocate to the enclave’s south within the next 24 hours.
“The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
“The United Nations strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation,” he said.
Seeking to build support for its response, Israel’s government showed U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO defense ministers graphic images of children and civilians they said Hamas had killed in a weekend rampage in Israel.
Hamas is capable of defending Gaza against Israeli ground invasion: Qassam Brigades
Blinken said they showed a baby riddled with bullets, soldiers beheaded and young people burned in their cars. “It’s simply depravity in the worst imaginable way,” he said. “It’s really beyond anything that we can comprehend.
Israel’s military chief said “Now is the time for war” as his country amassed tanks near the Gaza Strip ahead of a planned ground invasion to annihilate the Palestinian militant Hamas group that rules the enclave and was behind deadly weekend attacks.
Israel has pounded Gaza from the air since the weekend incursions, the deadliest by Palestinian militants in its history, and has been preparing for a ground invasion.
