Kuwait rejects Israel's forced displacement of Gazans amid evacuation order

By Ahmed Gouda

ANKARA (AA) - Kuwait categorically rejected an Israeli order for Palestinians to evacuate their homes in Gaza and head south amid a massive air campaign on the Palestinian territory.

“Such a call would exacerbate the suffering of the Palestinian people who already suffer from the siege and bombardment that claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians,” Foreign Minister Sheikh Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah told the state news agency. KUNA.

The Kuwaiti minister deplored the Israeli military escalation in Gaza, indiscriminate killing of Palestinians and destruction of property as “a violation of international humanitarian law.”

He urged the international community and the UN Security Council “to act swiftly to halt this dangerous escalation and war that does not differentiate between civilian and military targets.”

The top diplomat demanded stopping attacks on civilians, ending the blockade, allowing the delivery of humanitarian and medical aid to the Palestinians “and ensuring providing them with water and food.”

The Israeli military warned 1.1 million residents in northern Gaza to evacuate Friday and immediately move south.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric warned that it would be impossible for Palestinians in Gaza to obey the order to leave the north without “devastating humanitarian consequences.”

The Gaza-based Health Ministry said at least 70 Palestinians were killed and 200 injured in an Israeli airstrike on a convoy of trucks carrying displaced civilians heading from northern Gaza to the south.

Israeli forces launched a sustained and forceful military campaign against the Gaza Strip in response to a military offensive by the Palestinian group Hamas in Israeli territories.

The conflict began last Saturday when Hamas initiated Operation Al-Aqsa Flood -- a multi-pronged surprise attack including a barrage of rocket launches and infiltrations into Israel via land, sea and air.

Hamas said the operation was in retaliation for the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem and Israeli settlers’ growing violence against Palestinians.

The Israeli military then launched Operation Swords of Iron against Hamas targets within the Gaza Strip.

That response has extended into cutting water and electricity supplies to Gaza, further worsening the living conditions in an area that has reeled under a crippling siege since 2007.

More than 3,300 people have been killed since the outbreak of the conflict, including 1,900 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis.