Israeli army orders mass evacuations in northern Gaza, says operations will intensify

CAIRO – 29 June 2025: The Israeli army issued mass evacuation orders early on Sunday, urging residents of numerous areas in northern Gaza to abandon their homes immediately as “operations in these regions will escalate.”

The evacuation order includes the neighborhoods of Al Zaytoun, the Old City, Al Turkman, Al Jadida, Al Tuffah, Al Daraj, Al Sabra, Jabalia Al Balad, Jabalia Al Nazla, Jabalia Camp, Al Rawda, Al Nahda, Al Zuhour, Al Noor, Al Salam, and Tal Al Zaatar, according to Israeli army spokesman, Avichay Adraee.

The Israeli army urged residents to evacuate immediately south to the Al-Mawasi area, an overcrowded coastal strip west of Khan Younis where the Israeli forces have executed mass killings earlier during the war.

Adraee warned that the army is “operating with extreme force in these areas, and these military operations will escalate, intensify, and extend westward to the city center to destroy the capabilities of the terrorist organizations.”

He stated that “returning to dangerous combat zones poses a danger to your lives.”

Over the past 20 months, the Israeli forces have killed more than 56,400 Palestinians in Gaza, injured over 133,000 more, devastated vital infrastructure, flattened homes and left the enclave on brink of famine.

Israeli soldiers told Haaretz last week that they were instructed to open fire on unarmed Palestinian civilians who were desperately seeking assistance at designated aid distribution points of the suspicious US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).