Israeli PM warns Palestinians to flee Gaza

Gaza, The Gulf Observer: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s warning for Palestinians living in besieged Gaza to leave amid incessant bombardment has been met with strong criticism and outrage.

Many have pointed out that civilians in the blockaded Palestinian enclave have nowhere to go because Israel has imposed a harsh blockade from land, sea and air for years together.

The warning is “meaningless” and Netanyahu is trying to fool people into thinking he cares about civilians, said Omar Baddar, a political analyst.

“Netanyahu knows he’s about to commit an unprecedented massacre in Gaza. He knows civilians in Gaza have nowhere to go because Israel has them trapped under siege,” Baddar said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Netanyahu’s warning followed another warning — Israel will stop supplying electricity, fuel and goods to the blockaded enclave. Much of territory was already thrown into darkness by nightfall after electrical supplies from Israel, which supplies almost all of the territories’ power, were cut off earlier in the day.

Mohammed El Kurd, one of the most prominent Palestinian voices during the Shiekh Jarrah crackdown by Israel, also commented on the bizarre warning, saying the Palestinians can’t do anything to leave the “open-air prison”.

“Netanyahu telling Palestinians in Gaza to ‘leave now,’ because he’s about to bombard the besieged Strip, as if they can do anything to leave that open-air prison which is Gaza,” El Kurd wrote on X.

Human Rights Lawyer Mai El Sadany said that Netanyahu’s warning signals a threat of “illegal collective punishment.”

“Palestinian civilians in Gaza have nowhere to go. Gaza has been under blockade by land, air, and sea for 17 years,” she tweeted.

Poet and Author Remi Kanazi said the warning is a sign that Israel is about to commit an “even larger scale massacre”, adding that Palestinians in besieged Gaza are trapped in an open prison, awaiting their death.

Human Rights Attorney and Associate Professor at Rutgers University, Noura Erakat, said besieged Gaza has been under blockade for 17 years and has been subjected to four full military offensives.

“Any shock in response to this multi-scalar attack reflects an expectation that those Palestinians die quietly and a complicity in their strangulation,” Erakat wrote.

Arab Studies Journal Assistant Editor Amy Fallas denounced the international community’s bias as Netanyahu is about to broadcast “war crimes” that are about to take place.

“Where’s the international outcry against this disregard for civilians?” she tweeted.

Other non-Palestinian figures also expressed their shock, with Euroasia Group President and Political Scientist Ian Bremmer saying it is “unclear where civilians are supposed to go or how.”