Sara Daniel, a French writer and senior Middle East correspondent, asserted on “Le Nouvel Observateur” magazine that Israeli soldiers on Salah Al-Din street in the Gaza strip are protecting the fleeing Palestinians from Hamas, while heading from the north of the strip to its south.
Daniel repeated the claim during an appearance on the 24HPujadas show on the LCI television channel and stated that "Israelis are accompanying the displaced on the humanitarian corridor. They are protecting them from Hamas. We witnessed these amazing scenes. I do not know in which direction it was, but I saw it. She added, “There were displaced people carrying white flags and being protected by Israeli tanks.”
Did the Israeli army protect Palestinians on their way to the south?
Israeli Army Forces People To Evacuate Northern Gaza
On November 4, the Israeli occupation army announced the opening of a humanitarian passage for Palestinians fleeing bombings, between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. along Salah Al-Din street, linking the northern and southern parts of Gaza. Avichay Adraee, an army spokesman, published information for days in a row, modifying the allocated time from 10 a.m. until 2 or 4 p.m. This development follows the Israeli army's ground invasion of the strip, initiated two weeks ago, leading to clashes with the Palestinian resistance.
Israel had been distributing leaflets since October 13, urging northern Gaza inhabitants to evacuate south. Failure to do so would label them as Hamas militants, making them targets for occupation forces.
On October 21, the Israeli army dropped new leaflets in northern Gaza, instructing immediate evacuation. The leaflets warned of imminent danger, explicitly stating that those choosing not to evacuate could be considered assets of a terrorist organization.
In response to the warnings, Donatella Rovera, senior crisis advisor at Amnesty International, remarked that “messages in these leaflets cannot be considered effective warnings to civilians, they represent additional evidence that Israel aims to forcibly displace civilians from northern Gaza.”
Donatella Rovera suggests that these threats could amount to the war crime of collective punishment in the sense that they are making hundreds of thousands of civilians responsible for acts they did not commit, just because they chose to stay home when they did not have a safe place to flee too amid the relentless Israeli bombing campaign across the entire Gaza strip.
On October 30, the journalists have noted the entrance of a tank into Salah Al-Din street. Palestinian photographer Youssef Al-Saifi documented its targeting of civilians in a car near the Netzarim roundabout south of Gaza city.
Satellite images obtained by the New York Times also revealed that Israeli ground forces made an incursion across the entire width of the strip, encircling the largest city in Gaza and cutting off the roads leading south. This occurred one day before occupation forces confirmed their encirclement of Gaza city and intensified operations inside it.
Israeli raids on the Gaza strip continued as the ground invasion began, with occupation forces advancing toward the heart of the city. Air and ground raids targeted positions in all areas of the strip, including areas harboring thousands of fleeing civilians, such as schools and hospitals.
Israeli Defense minister, Yoav Gallant, stated that Israeli soldiers “are operating on foot, with tanks and armored vehicles in all directions, all with the same target: Hamas terrorists in Gaza, including their infrastructure, leaders, hideouts, and communication rooms.”
Gallant described Gaza city as "the biggest human-made terrorist base," adding that miles of underground tunnels contain ammunition storehouses, communication rooms and hideouts for Palestinian fighters."
Euro-Med Monitor: Israel Transforms Humanitarian Corridor Into Death Trap
According to the Euro-Med Monitor, Israel has “transformed the fleeing passage it proposed into a trap to kill and arrest Palestinians in Gaza, not to mention acts of systematic and wide abuses of different forms.”
The Euro-Med Monitor teams gathered testimonies from Palestinians fleeing south over the past three days on the announced passage. They reported shocking events of killings, arrests and intentional humiliations.
The monitor had warned about serious legal and humanitarian concerns regarding the safety of Palestinian civilians since the Israeli evacuation order, in addition to the latter representing a forced displacement and population transfer contrary to humanitarian international law, and could potentially amount to a war crime.
It added that “Israel not only forcibly displaces civilians in Gaza but also fails to provide them with safe shelters or a way to safely flee. It also targets them during the evacuation and thus clearly violates the laws of war which prohibit violent acts or threats intended to spread fear among civilians.”
According to UNRWA, between 50,000 and 80,000 people were forced to move from north to south, with most of them traveling on foot. The agency added that inhabitants were forced to walk several kilometers and were exhausted and dehydrated under unusually hot temperatures.
Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed extreme concern during a press conference on November 10 regarding the Israeli forces ordering civilians in Gaza to move to a safe zone. He emphasized that a unilaterally established safe zone by one side can increase the risks faced by civilians and raise real questions about the possibility of ensuring safety on the ground.
Misbar previously analyzed a video published on November 3, showing nearly 10 corpses covered in blood, some with severe injuries leading to serious bleeding around the bodies on Al-Rashid street to the south of Gaza city. Misbar found signs indicating that these victims died due to artillery shelling from occupation forces.
On October 14, in response to Israeli army calls directing civilians to head south, air strikes targeted convoys on Salah Al-Din street, resulting in the tragic death of 70 people, in addition to 150 injured. Occupation forces also targeted several areas in the southern parts of the strip which it had previously declared as “safe zones."
Journalists and correspondents also document testimonies from people who fled from the north who talked about their struggle in moving south. Occupation forces demanded that they raise their hands, show identification cards, and forced them to raise white flags as they passed by.
One woman who fled told Anadolu Agency that “they asked us to raise white flags after gathering us. They mocked and intentionally humiliated us following firing. They also arrested a number of young men."
According to the Palestinian Health ministry, Israeli occupation forces, during the 36th day of their aggression on Gaza, killed over 11,000 civilians, including 4500 children, 3000 women, and 700 elderly people. In addition to over 27,000 injured people, with a majority being women and children.
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