Mohammed Salem/Reuters
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) issued a dire warning to the United Nations just before midnight Thursday, ordering the intergovernmental organization to remove its staff and urge Palestinians living in a region of northern Gaza to evacuate south within the next 24 hours.
U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric confirmed the news to the Associated Press, Axios and other news outlets while imploring the besieged nation to reconsider, stressing that the order would affect as many as 1.1 million people—a near-unprecedented migration that could have “devastating humanitarian consequences.”
“Today, just before midnight local time, team leaders of the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Department of Safety and Security in Gaza were informed by their liaison officers in the Israeli military that the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours,” Dujarric said.