In the early morning hours of Friday, October 13, the Israeli Defense issued a statement outlining humanitarian efforts being taken by the Israeli military to ensure the safety of non-combatant citizens of Gaza as Israel continues to respond to the brutality of attacks launched upon Israel and her civilians over the last week.
The statement, given just after 7 am Israeli time by a spokesperson for the IDF, detailed a very clear announcement issued to all Gazans to evacuate Gaza within 24 hours and to head South of the Gaza River immediately, citing Hamas terror cells hiding under Gaza homes as well as in underground tunnels. Israeli officials also gave this warning to the UN on Thursday, asking them to instruct people in Gaza to evacuate.
Hamas has responded to the IDF’s warning to Gazans to immediately go South in order to save their lives. Hamas has directed Gazans to hold their ground and not leave their homes, calling the Israeli effort of emergency humanitarian action intended to save lives “psychological warfare”.
In the warning issued on X, the spokesperson asked Gazans to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the Muslim terrorist organization Hamas emphasizing the goal of IDF to minimize non-combatant casualties as much as possible—a stark contrast to the bloody attacks that have been unleashed by Hamas directly onto Israeli civilians.
The spokesperson also addressed the ongoing challenge Israeli officials currently face in the effort to identify the thousands of Israeli bodies that continue to amass over the days since the assault began, to bring them to a center in Tel Aviv, to identify them, and contact next of kin to arrange transport and aid in proper burial services. Over 1,000 were massacred, and the number keeps growing as more bodies are discovered.
The full update is as follows:
"Shalom Everyone, Lt Col in the Reserves Jonathan here with a daily update. It is Friday morning, 7:20 a.m. local Israeli time. I have some updates regarding the operations and war against Hamas.
"The situation during the night has been relatively quiet, relative to the last 6 days.
"Still, there is rocket fire toward southern Israel, there are still terrorists that are attacking Israeli communities or at least trying. Most of them have been repelled, killed or taken into custody.
"What I want to share with you first is a humanitarian step that the IDF is taking in order to minimize civilian casualties as this war unfolds.
"I would like to read verbatim, word for word, the message that we sent, obviously in Arabic, to the local population in Gaza City informing them of the need to evacuate from where they are for their own safety. This is the message:
"'The IDF calls for the evacuation of all civilians from Gaza City from their homes southwards for their own safety and protection and to move to the area south of Wadi Aza, the River Gaza as shown on the map.'
"We distributed this with a map as well in order [for them] to understand what we are talking about. Gaza city, a major center, the biggest center of our population in the Gaza strip, if we zoom in a bit - here we have Gaza City, and more to the South, Gaza River.
"To provide further clarity, the spokesperson referenced a digital map behind him saying: You can see it here—that is the Gaza River and what the statement is saying is that the people living in Gaza for their own safety should move south of this river—the river being something clear and understandable for everybody, whether or not they have a map."
He continued to read the translation of the recently issued notice in Arabic to Gazan civilians:
"The Hamas Terror Organization waged a war against the state of Israel and Gaza City is an area where military operations are taking place. This evacuation is for your own safety. You will be able to return to Gaza City only when another announcement permitting it is made. Do not approach the area or the security fence with the state of Israel," the spokesman continued.
The spokesperson paused to note the digital detailed map and explained that the announcement was warning Gazans: “Do not go this way, towards the security fence, do not approach the border, only go south.”
He continued to read the statement to Gazans:
'Hamas terrorists are hiding in Gaza City inside tunnels, underneath houses and inside buildings populated with innocent Gazan civilians.
'Civillians of Gaza City: Evacuate south for your own safety and the safety of your families and distance yourself from Hamas terrorists who are using you as human shields.
'In the following days, the IDF will continue to operate with significant force in Gaza City and will make extensive efforts to avoid harming civilians,' the statement concluded.
"That's the message that we issued a few hours ago to Gazan civilians and the aim here is to minimize the damage to civilians. There are significant combat operations ongoing and we are preparing for future and the continuance of our combat operations and out of an understanding that there are civilians here who are not our enemy and we do not want to target them, we are asking them to evacuate so that we will be able to continue to strike military targets belonging to Hamas in the Gaza Strip. That is the purpose, and I think that is in an important update relevant for you to be aware of.
"This is the first notice that we gave - we understand that this will take time. It is not an easy process, but we have issued this guidance and the aim of the evacuation is simply to save lives.
"As you may have read in the media this was communicated first and foremost to UN authorities and the IDF is in communication and liaison with UN authorities, transferring information to them and also listening to what the UN informs Israel about the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
"As I have said many times during the last 7 days, the IDF remains fully committed to the law of international conflict. We will carry ourselves accordingly in sharp contrast to the enemies around us and to Hamas, which is in total disregard of anything related to values, norms and definitely not the laws of armed conflict.
"The other things that are important for everyone to know are related to casualties.
"Unfortunately, the number of Israeli casualties has risen again to 1,300 Israeli civilians and soldiers and more than 3,000 wounded. There is a massive national effort involving almost all of the security organizations and many of the ministries of the Israeli state, which is focused on taking the bodies form the same communities that we spoke about yesterday, like for instance, Kfar Aza, Be’Eri and Nahal Oz and many other communities in the entire southern area, collecting the bodies, bringing them to a center in Tel Aviv, identifying them and then making sure that their next of kin, their loved ones, are able to take them and to provide them a final and respectable burial. That is ongoing. It is a tedious, long and very detailed process taking lots of resources.
"We have never ever in our history been forced to deal with such a situation and it is ongoing it will take days and as we match and identify more and more of the Israeli bodies that are uncovered in the communities, we will have more information about missing persons and perhaps the whereabouts of people that we are still at this stage not aware of where they are and clearly loved ones are looking for them, asking questions and demanding those answers and we are working hard at providing those answers.
"Other than that, the northern front, which we have spoken about a few times, has been relatively stable over the last hour. We are on high alert in the North as we have been, over the last few days, with enhanced troops, vigilant, watching the actions of Hezbollah and the same thing could be said about the Golan Heights—Lebanon and the Golan Heights.
"As we begin the seventh day of this war against Hamas I wish to emphasize what our aim is:
"Our aim is to take all of Hamas' military abilities and strip them away . At the end of this war our intention is that Hamas will no longer have any ability to strike or harm or kill Israeli civilians. That is the purpose of what we are doing now inside the Gaza Strip. That is why the Israeli Air Force has been delivering significant amounts of bombs on the Gaza Strip and that is what we will continue to do as this war unfolds and as we will deal a decisive blow to Hamas for the horrible heinous acts that they have done," he concluded.
The spokesperson then thanked the live audience who had been watching and asked that the message be shared as much as possible in order to prevent any non-combatant deaths.
This announcement demonstrated a notable attempt on the part of Israel to operate with urgency for both the protection of her own people as well as Gazan civilians who have been under the rule of the Hamas Muslim terrorist organization for years. The difference in ethical tactics shown by the IDF is one that does not go unnoticed, especially in contrast to the tactics used by the Muslim terror organizations that have left a wake of bloody horror over the last 7 days.
As reported by The Guardian, shortly after the issue of the Israeli message attempting to salvage the lives of all Gazan non-combatants by beseeching them to evacuate Gaza and to head South until further notice, Grant Shapps, UK Defence Secretary issued a statement of support for the actions of Israel.
While Shapps claimed the UK was not aware of specific Israeli plans, he commented, “The UK government supports both the right of Israel to defend itself in this way, and that Israel is providing advance warning of military action so people can move themselves out of the way. It’s absolutely right that happens.”
As the world watches in horror, many pray that the non-combatants of Hamas are able to overcome the terroristic regime under which they have been suffering for years.
