Attacks on Palestinians evacuating Gaza City

Attacks on Palestinians evacuating Gaza City
In October 2023, multiple attacks during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war hit Palestinians attempting to leave northern Gaza City and killing 70 people, mostly women and children. On 13 October, an airstrike occurred after an evacuation directive from Israel, urging more than a million residents from northern Gaza to move to the southern part of the territory.
According to CNN, a number of Palestinians who followed the evacuation warnings and fled their homes, Israeli airstrikes killed them outside of the evacuation zone. Also, 200 people were injured, at the mentioned attacks.
Background
Tensions escalated when Hamas, the group in control of Gaza, launched an attack on Israel. Israel responded with a series of airstrikes on Gaza. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) issued a warning to residents in the northern regions to evacuate by a specific deadline. However, the United Nations considered this evacuation order impractical to execute safely due to the significant number of people it affected.
Attacks
On 13 October, Israel ordered the entire population of northern Gaza to move south, forcing more than one million people to flee their homes. Following the order, attacks on evacuation convoys heading south to Gaza killed 70 people mostly women and children. While airstrikes persisted in the south, Palestinians initiated evacuations from northern Gaza. As they tried to escape, attacks targeted their convoys. According to Hamas officials' reports, these attacks led to the loss of lives primarily women and children. According to the Hamas media office, these airstrikes were carried out on vehicles leaving Gaza City. These cars were targeted at three points.
Responsibility
Although there are disputes about the exact details of the attacks, a number of sources attribute responsibility to an Israeli missile strike. When analysing video footage of the event, the Financial Times reported that it "appears to rule out most explanations aside from an Israeli strike." British Army major and munitions expert Chris Cobb-Smith stated that a missile was the most likely cause of the explosions seen in the videos. Another munitions expert, Desmond Travers, considered an Israeli attack to be the most plausible explanation, although he did not rule out other possible explanations.
Other sources, including the BBC, reported the event without suggesting the responsible party, and some sources pointed to the absence of airstrike signatures in photographed material, suggesting roadside bombings. Israel directly accused Hamas of blocking Palestinian evacuation, in order to use them as "human shields".
Responses
The official Palestinian news agency (Wafa) described the attack as "a new massacre".
The Palestine Red Crescent Society, a medical organization, said: "We have not left and will not leave,” It added: “Our medics will carry on their humanitarian duties. We won’t leave people to face death alone.”
See also
October 2023 Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip
Allegations of war crimes against Israel
Outline of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war
Reference
History of Gaza City
North Gaza Governorate
21st-century human rights abuses
Massacres in the Gaza Strip
Human migration
Unsolved mass murders
Palestinian war casualties
People murdered in the Gaza Strip
2023 in the Gaza Strip