Red Cross Warns Gaza City Evacuation Would Endanger Civilians

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned Saturday that any Israeli attempt to evacuate Gaza City would put civilians at severe risk, as the Israeli military tightened its siege ahead of a planned ground offensive.

“It is impossible that a mass evacuation of Gaza City could ever be done in a way that is safe and dignified under the current conditions,” ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric said. With shelter, health care, and food supplies already collapsing, she said an evacuation was “not only unfeasible but incomprehensible.”

Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli strikes since dawn had killed 66 people in the war-ravaged territory. Twelve were reportedly killed when an airstrike hit tents sheltering displaced families near a mosque in the Al-Nasr area, while others died near food distribution points. AFP could not independently verify the tolls.

Residents described a night of relentless bombardment. “It didn’t stop for a second, and we didn’t sleep all night,” said Abu Mohammed Kishko, from Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood. Witnesses said children were among the dead in Saturday’s strikes.

Israel has declared Gaza City a “dangerous combat zone” but has not issued a formal evacuation order. However, COGAT, the Defense Ministry body overseeing civilian affairs, said it was preparing to move residents southward.

The looming offensive has fueled domestic criticism in Israel, where hostage families fear military action could endanger their loved ones. At a rally in Tel Aviv, Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, warned that occupying Gaza instead of pursuing a negotiated deal would mean “the execution of our hostages and dear soldiers.”

Israel confirmed Saturday that the body of student Idan Shtivi, one of two hostages recovered this week, had been identified. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum called the return of his remains “the closing of a circle and fulfilment of the state’s obligation to its citizens.”

The Israeli army said two soldiers were wounded in fighting in northern Gaza and that it had “struck a key Hamas terrorist in the area of Gaza City,” without providing details.

Hamas’s October 2023 attack killed 1,219 people in Israel and saw 251 hostages taken; 47 remain in Gaza, with about 20 believed alive. Israel’s subsequent offensive has killed at least 63,371 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, figures the UN deems credible.