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Palestinians walk through debris along a street in the aftermath of Israeli bombardment in al-Karama district in Gaza City on October 11, 2023.
Progressive members of the U.S. Congress joined humanitarian groups and the United Nations on Friday in condemning Israel’s 24-hour evacuation order for the entire population of the northern Gaza Strip, a directive that will be impossible for many in the region to meet—particularly the thousands wounded by Israeli airstrikes.
“Any person can see that ordering 1+ million people to move in under 24 hours is not possible. It is unacceptable,” U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote on social media. “Humanity is at stake. Nearly half are children. We must halt this.”
More than 400,000 Palestinians have been displaced since Israel began its latest bombing campaign in Gaza following a deadly Hamas attack on October 7.
In the wake of Israel’s order—which came hours before the nation launched ground raids in Gaza—many panicked residents fled their homes in the northern part of the enclave, with some fearing another permanent displacement on the scale of the 1948 Nakba.
“As I am packing my things I am wondering, is this really another Nakba?” 56-year-old Arwa El-Rayes, an internal medicine doctor, told The New York Times shortly before fleeing her home in Gaza City. “I am taking my house key and thinking, will I ever return to my home, will I ever see my home again?”
Reuters reported that “several thousand residents could be seen on roads heading out of the northern part of the Gaza Strip, but it was impossible to tell their numbers. Many others said they would not go.”
A 33-year-old woman in Gaza City told The Washington Post that she’s staying along with dozens of family members, including her elderly parents.
“There are no cars to take us anywhere,” she said. “There is no gas in cars. Cab companies don’t have cars anymore. The streets are so, so, so, so crowded, it’s like it’s the Day of Judgement.”
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) argued that “the mass expulsion of over 1 million people in a day is ethnic cleansing.”
“We have to stop ignoring the thousands of Palestinian lives lost and millions at stake!” Omar added. “We must use all diplomatic tools to stop this.”
Echoing aid groups, the Minnesota lawmaker emphasized that many in northern Gaza—including people with disabilities and those wounded by Israeli bombs—“can’t simply pick up and leave” in compliance with Israel’s evacuation directive, which the U.N.
said is untenable and should be rescinded.
“With communications and electricity shut down by Israel, the order cannot be communicated,” Omar wrote. “Roads are bombed and many cars are out of fuel, making fleeing impossible for many. Plus there has been no announcement of a pause in hostilities to allow for safe civilian evacuation, so people are afraid to leave and risk bombardment. Even if it were successful, there is no infrastructure in southern Gaza to receive an additional 1.1 million people.”
The Palestine Red Crescent Society underscored those warnings in a statement Friday, saying it doesn’t have “the means to evacuate the sick and the wounded in our hospitals, or the elderly and the disabled.”
“There are no safe areas in the whole of the Gaza Strip,” the group said. “The world must intervene to stop this catastrophe.”
Israeli forces have already been accused of targeting Gazans attempting to flee to the south with airstrikes.
Despite urgent appeals from lawmakers and aid organizations, officials in the U.S.—Israel’s top ally and leading supplier of weaponry—have provided no public indication that they will pressure Israel to reverse course.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told people in Gaza City on Friday to “evacuate south for your own safety and the safety of your families” as it amasses tanks and troops for an apparently imminent full-scale ground invasion. Hamas has reportedly told Gazans to defy the IDF’s instructions.
Asked about Israel’s evacuation order during a CNN appearance on Friday, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said he doesn’t want to get involved in “armchair quarterbacking” the situation, adding, “We understand what they’re trying to do.”
“Now it’s a tall order,” Kirby admitted. “It’s a million people, and it’s a very urban, dense environment. It’s already a combat zone. So I don’t think anybody’s underestimating the challenge here of effecting that evacuation.”
The White House’s soft-pedaling of Israel’s directive contrasts sharply with the assessments of human rights organizations, which argued the order amounts to a war crime that will worsen an already calamitous situation.
“The instructions issued by the Israeli authorities for the population of Gaza City to immediately leave their homes, coupled with the complete siege explicitly denying them food, water, and electricity, are not compatible with international humanitarian law,” the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Friday. “When military powers order people to leave their homes, all possible measures must be taken to ensure the population has access to basic necessities like food and water and that members of the same family are not separated.”
“Gaza is a closed area of limited size and resources,” the ICRC added. “People have nowhere safe to go and many, including the disabled, elderly, and sick, will not be able to leave their homes. International humanitarian law protects all civilians, including those who remain. Today, it is impossible for Gazans to know which areas will next face attack.”
“There are no extra beds in any hospitals anywhere for people to move to. Most of the wounded are unstable, they’ll die en route.
Gaza’s health ministry told The Independent that it would be “impossible” to move the wounded in its care to southern Gaza, given that the entire territory’s healthcare system is overwhelmed and teetering on the brink of total collapse due to the rapid influx of airstrike victims and Israel’s blockade, which has cut off the enclave’s supply of electricity, fuel, and critical supplies.
More than 6,600 people in Gaza have been injured by Israel’s relentless aerial campaign, which dropped roughly
6,000 bombs on the occupied enclave over just a six-day period, leveling entire neighborhoods and damaging medical facilities, schools, and other civilian infrastructure.
“There are no extra beds in any hospitals anywhere for people to move to,” Gaza’s health ministry said. “Most of the wounded are unstable, they’ll die en route. All hospitals in Gaza, even after they’ve been expanded, are full.”
Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization, noted that “there are severely ill people whose injuries mean their only chances of survival is being on life support, such as mechanical ventilators.”
“So moving those people is a death sentence,” said Jasarevic. “Asking health workers to do so is beyond cruel.”
Meinie Nicolai, general director of Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement Friday that the Israeli military’s evacuation order is “outrageous.” The group said Israel has given Al Awda Hospital—where Doctors Without Borders staff are treating patients—just two hours to evacuate.
“This represents an attack on medical care and on humanity. We are talking about more than a million human beings,” said Nicolai. “‘Unprecedented’ doesn’t even cover the medical humanitarian impact of this. Gaza is being flattened, thousands of people are dying. This must stop now. We condemn Israel’s demand in the strongest possible terms.”
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Progressive members of the U.S. Congress joined humanitarian groups and the United Nations on Friday in condemning Israel’s 24-hour evacuation order for the entire population of the northern Gaza Strip, a directive that will be impossible for many in the region to meet—particularly the thousands wounded by Israeli airstrikes.
“Any person can see that ordering 1+ million people to move in under 24 hours is not possible. It is unacceptable,” U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote on social media. “Humanity is at stake. Nearly half are children. We must halt this.”
More than 400,000 Palestinians have been displaced since Israel began its latest bombing campaign in Gaza following a deadly Hamas attack on October 7.
In the wake of Israel’s order—which came hours before the nation launched ground raids in Gaza—many panicked residents fled their homes in the northern part of the enclave, with some fearing another permanent displacement on the scale of the 1948 Nakba.
“As I am packing my things I am wondering, is this really another Nakba?” 56-year-old Arwa El-Rayes, an internal medicine doctor, told The New York Times shortly before fleeing her home in Gaza City. “I am taking my house key and thinking, will I ever return to my home, will I ever see my home again?”
Reuters reported that “several thousand residents could be seen on roads heading out of the northern part of the Gaza Strip, but it was impossible to tell their numbers. Many others said they would not go.”
A 33-year-old woman in Gaza City told The Washington Post that she’s staying along with dozens of family members, including her elderly parents.
“There are no cars to take us anywhere,” she said. “There is no gas in cars. Cab companies don’t have cars anymore. The streets are so, so, so, so crowded, it’s like it’s the Day of Judgement.”
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) argued that “the mass expulsion of over 1 million people in a day is ethnic cleansing.”
“We have to stop ignoring the thousands of Palestinian lives lost and millions at stake!” Omar added. “We must use all diplomatic tools to stop this.”
Echoing aid groups, the Minnesota lawmaker emphasized that many in northern Gaza—including people with disabilities and those wounded by Israeli bombs—“can’t simply pick up and leave” in compliance with Israel’s evacuation directive, which the U.N.
said is untenable and should be rescinded.
“With communications and electricity shut down by Israel, the order cannot be communicated,” Omar wrote. “Roads are bombed and many cars are out of fuel, making fleeing impossible for many. Plus there has been no announcement of a pause in hostilities to allow for safe civilian evacuation, so people are afraid to leave and risk bombardment. Even if it were successful, there is no infrastructure in southern Gaza to receive an additional 1.1 million people.”
The Palestine Red Crescent Society underscored those warnings in a statement Friday, saying it doesn’t have “the means to evacuate the sick and the wounded in our hospitals, or the elderly and the disabled.”
“There are no safe areas in the whole of the Gaza Strip,” the group said. “The world must intervene to stop this catastrophe.”
Israeli forces have already been accused of targeting Gazans attempting to flee to the south with airstrikes.
Despite urgent appeals from lawmakers and aid organizations, officials in the U.S.—Israel’s top ally and leading supplier of weaponry—have provided no public indication that they will pressure Israel to reverse course.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told people in Gaza City on Friday to “evacuate south for your own safety and the safety of your families” as it amasses tanks and troops for an apparently imminent full-scale ground invasion. Hamas has reportedly told Gazans to defy the IDF’s instructions.
Asked about Israel’s evacuation order during a CNN appearance on Friday, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said he doesn’t want to get involved in “armchair quarterbacking” the situation, adding, “We understand what they’re trying to do.”
“Now it’s a tall order,” Kirby admitted. “It’s a million people, and it’s a very urban, dense environment. It’s already a combat zone. So I don’t think anybody’s underestimating the challenge here of effecting that evacuation.”
The White House’s soft-pedaling of Israel’s directive contrasts sharply with the assessments of human rights organizations, which argued the order amounts to a war crime that will worsen an already calamitous situation.
“The instructions issued by the Israeli authorities for the population of Gaza City to immediately leave their homes, coupled with the complete siege explicitly denying them food, water, and electricity, are not compatible with international humanitarian law,” the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Friday. “When military powers order people to leave their homes, all possible measures must be taken to ensure the population has access to basic necessities like food and water and that members of the same family are not separated.”
“Gaza is a closed area of limited size and resources,” the ICRC added. “People have nowhere safe to go and many, including the disabled, elderly, and sick, will not be able to leave their homes. International humanitarian law protects all civilians, including those who remain. Today, it is impossible for Gazans to know which areas will next face attack.”
“There are no extra beds in any hospitals anywhere for people to move to. Most of the wounded are unstable, they’ll die en route.
Gaza’s health ministry told The Independent that it would be “impossible” to move the wounded in its care to southern Gaza, given that the entire territory’s healthcare system is overwhelmed and teetering on the brink of total collapse due to the rapid influx of airstrike victims and Israel’s blockade, which has cut off the enclave’s supply of electricity, fuel, and critical supplies.
More than 6,600 people in Gaza have been injured by Israel’s relentless aerial campaign, which dropped roughly
6,000 bombs on the occupied enclave over just a six-day period, leveling entire neighborhoods and damaging medical facilities, schools, and other civilian infrastructure.
“There are no extra beds in any hospitals anywhere for people to move to,” Gaza’s health ministry said. “Most of the wounded are unstable, they’ll die en route. All hospitals in Gaza, even after they’ve been expanded, are full.”
Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization, noted that “there are severely ill people whose injuries mean their only chances of survival is being on life support, such as mechanical ventilators.”
“So moving those people is a death sentence,” said Jasarevic. “Asking health workers to do so is beyond cruel.”
Meinie Nicolai, general director of Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement Friday that the Israeli military’s evacuation order is “outrageous.” The group said Israel has given Al Awda Hospital—where Doctors Without Borders staff are treating patients—just two hours to evacuate.
“This represents an attack on medical care and on humanity. We are talking about more than a million human beings,” said Nicolai. “‘Unprecedented’ doesn’t even cover the medical humanitarian impact of this. Gaza is being flattened, thousands of people are dying. This must stop now. We condemn Israel’s demand in the strongest possible terms.”
Progressive members of the U.S. Congress joined humanitarian groups and the United Nations on Friday in condemning Israel’s 24-hour evacuation order for the entire population of the northern Gaza Strip, a directive that will be impossible for many in the region to meet—particularly the thousands wounded by Israeli airstrikes.
“Any person can see that ordering 1+ million people to move in under 24 hours is not possible. It is unacceptable,” U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote on social media. “Humanity is at stake. Nearly half are children. We must halt this.”
More than 400,000 Palestinians have been displaced since Israel began its latest bombing campaign in Gaza following a deadly Hamas attack on October 7.
In the wake of Israel’s order—which came hours before the nation launched ground raids in Gaza—many panicked residents fled their homes in the northern part of the enclave, with some fearing another permanent displacement on the scale of the 1948 Nakba.
“As I am packing my things I am wondering, is this really another Nakba?” 56-year-old Arwa El-Rayes, an internal medicine doctor, told The New York Times shortly before fleeing her home in Gaza City. “I am taking my house key and thinking, will I ever return to my home, will I ever see my home again?”
Reuters reported that “several thousand residents could be seen on roads heading out of the northern part of the Gaza Strip, but it was impossible to tell their numbers. Many others said they would not go.”
A 33-year-old woman in Gaza City told The Washington Post that she’s staying along with dozens of family members, including her elderly parents.
“There are no cars to take us anywhere,” she said. “There is no gas in cars. Cab companies don’t have cars anymore. The streets are so, so, so, so crowded, it’s like it’s the Day of Judgement.”
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) argued that “the mass expulsion of over 1 million people in a day is ethnic cleansing.”
“We have to stop ignoring the thousands of Palestinian lives lost and millions at stake!” Omar added. “We must use all diplomatic tools to stop this.”
Echoing aid groups, the Minnesota lawmaker emphasized that many in northern Gaza—including people with disabilities and those wounded by Israeli bombs—“can’t simply pick up and leave” in compliance with Israel’s evacuation directive, which the U.N.
said is untenable and should be rescinded.
“With communications and electricity shut down by Israel, the order cannot be communicated,” Omar wrote. “Roads are bombed and many cars are out of fuel, making fleeing impossible for many. Plus there has been no announcement of a pause in hostilities to allow for safe civilian evacuation, so people are afraid to leave and risk bombardment. Even if it were successful, there is no infrastructure in southern Gaza to receive an additional 1.1 million people.”
The Palestine Red Crescent Society underscored those warnings in a statement Friday, saying it doesn’t have “the means to evacuate the sick and the wounded in our hospitals, or the elderly and the disabled.”
“There are no safe areas in the whole of the Gaza Strip,” the group said. “The world must intervene to stop this catastrophe.”
Israeli forces have already been accused of targeting Gazans attempting to flee to the south with airstrikes.
Despite urgent appeals from lawmakers and aid organizations, officials in the U.S.—Israel’s top ally and leading supplier of weaponry—have provided no public indication that they will pressure Israel to reverse course.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told people in Gaza City on Friday to “evacuate south for your own safety and the safety of your families” as it amasses tanks and troops for an apparently imminent full-scale ground invasion. Hamas has reportedly told Gazans to defy the IDF’s instructions.
Asked about Israel’s evacuation order during a CNN appearance on Friday, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said he doesn’t want to get involved in “armchair quarterbacking” the situation, adding, “We understand what they’re trying to do.”
“Now it’s a tall order,” Kirby admitted. “It’s a million people, and it’s a very urban, dense environment. It’s already a combat zone. So I don’t think anybody’s underestimating the challenge here of effecting that evacuation.”
The White House’s soft-pedaling of Israel’s directive contrasts sharply with the assessments of human rights organizations, which argued the order amounts to a war crime that will worsen an already calamitous situation.
“The instructions issued by the Israeli authorities for the population of Gaza City to immediately leave their homes, coupled with the complete siege explicitly denying them food, water, and electricity, are not compatible with international humanitarian law,” the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Friday. “When military powers order people to leave their homes, all possible measures must be taken to ensure the population has access to basic necessities like food and water and that members of the same family are not separated.”
“Gaza is a closed area of limited size and resources,” the ICRC added. “People have nowhere safe to go and many, including the disabled, elderly, and sick, will not be able to leave their homes. International humanitarian law protects all civilians, including those who remain. Today, it is impossible for Gazans to know which areas will next face attack.”
“There are no extra beds in any hospitals anywhere for people to move to. Most of the wounded are unstable, they’ll die en route.
Gaza’s health ministry told The Independent that it would be “impossible” to move the wounded in its care to southern Gaza, given that the entire territory’s healthcare system is overwhelmed and teetering on the brink of total collapse due to the rapid influx of airstrike victims and Israel’s blockade, which has cut off the enclave’s supply of electricity, fuel, and critical supplies.
More than 6,600 people in Gaza have been injured by Israel’s relentless aerial campaign, which dropped roughly
6,000 bombs on the occupied enclave over just a six-day period, leveling entire neighborhoods and damaging medical facilities, schools, and other civilian infrastructure.
“There are no extra beds in any hospitals anywhere for people to move to,” Gaza’s health ministry said. “Most of the wounded are unstable, they’ll die en route. All hospitals in Gaza, even after they’ve been expanded, are full.”
Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization, noted that “there are severely ill people whose injuries mean their only chances of survival is being on life support, such as mechanical ventilators.”
“So moving those people is a death sentence,” said Jasarevic. “Asking health workers to do so is beyond cruel.”
Meinie Nicolai, general director of Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement Friday that the Israeli military’s evacuation order is “outrageous.” The group said Israel has given Al Awda Hospital—where Doctors Without Borders staff are treating patients—just two hours to evacuate.
“This represents an attack on medical care and on humanity. We are talking about more than a million human beings,” said Nicolai. “‘Unprecedented’ doesn’t even cover the medical humanitarian impact of this. Gaza is being flattened, thousands of people are dying. This must stop now. We condemn Israel’s demand in the strongest possible terms.”
President Donald Trump doubled down on his threats to silence his critics Thursday, telling reporters aboard Air Force One that outlets that give him "bad press" may have their broadcast licenses taken away.
The threat came just one day after his Federal Communications Commission (FCC) director, Brendan Carr, successfully pressured ABC into pulling Jimmy Kimmel's show from the air by threatening the broadcast licenses of its affiliates over a comment the comedian made about the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
"I read someplace that the networks were 97% against me," Trump told the press gaggle. "I get 97% negative, and yet I won it easily. I won all seven swing states, popular vote, I won everything. And they're 97% against, they give me wholly bad publicity... I mean, they're getting a license, I would think maybe their license should be taken away."
"When you have a network and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that’s all they do," the president continued. "If you go back, I guess they haven’t had a conservative on in years or something, somebody said, but when you go back and take a look, all they do is hit Trump. They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that.”
He said that the decision would be left up to Carr, who has threatened to take away licenses from networks that air what he called "distorted" content.
It is unclear where Trump's statistic that networks have been "97% against" him originates, nor the claim that mainstream news networks "haven't had a conservative on in years."
But even if it were true, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez says "the FCC doesn't have the authority, the ability, or the constitutional right to revoke a license because of content."
In comments made to Axios Thursday, Gomez—the lone Democrat on the five-member panel—said that the Trump administration was "weaponizing its licensing authority in order to bring broadcasters to heel," as part of a "campaign of censorship and control."
National news networks like ABC, CBS, and NBC do not have broadcasting licenses approved by the FCC, nor do cable networks like CNN, MSNBC, or Fox News. The licenses threatened by Carr are for local affiliates, which—despite having the branding of the big networks—are owned by less well-known companies like Nexstar Media Group and the Sinclair Broadcasting Group, both of which pushed in favor of ABC's decision to ax Kimmel.
Gomez said that with Trump's intimidation of broadcasters, the "threat is the point."
"It is a very hard standard to meet to revoke a license, which is why it's so rarely done, but broadcast license to the broadcasters are extremely valuable," she said. "And so they don't want to be dragged before the FCC either in order to answer to an enforcement complaint of some kind or under the threat of possible revocation."
Democratic lawmakers are vowing to investigate the Trump administration's pressure campaign that may have led to ABC deciding to indefinitely suspend late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) announced on Thursday that he filed a motion to subpoena Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr one day after he publicly warned ABC of negative consequences if the network kept Kimmel on the air.
"Enough of Congress sleepwalking while [President Donald] Trump and [Vice President JD] Vance shred the First Amendment and Constitution," Khanna declared. "It is time for Congress to stand up for Article I."
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, also said on Thursday that he was opening an investigation into the potential financial aspects of Carr's pressure campaign on ABC, including the involvement of Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which is the network's largest affiliate and is currently involved in merger talks that will need FCC approval.
"The Oversight Committee is launching an investigation into ABC, Sinclair, and the FCC," he said. "We will not be intimidated and we will defend the First Amendment."
Progressive politicians weren't the only ones launching an investigation into the Kimmel controversy, as legal organization Democracy Forward announced that it's filed a a Freedom of Information Act request for records after January 20, 2025 related to any FCC efforts “to use the agency’s licensing and enforcement powers to police and limit speech and influence what the public can watch and hear.”
After Hamas urged international support for the Global Sumud Flotilla, Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday signaled another potential attack by claiming on social media that the peaceful humanitarian mission to feed starving Palestinians in the Gaza Strip "is a jihadist initiative serving the terror group's agenda."
While Israel has not taken responsibility for recent drone attacks on the Global Sumud Flotilla—whose name means perseverance in Arabic—the incidents have raised eyebrows, given the country's history of attacking previous ones. The foreign ministers of 16 other nations on Tuesday implored Israel not to target this flotilla, which involves activists and political leaders from dozens of countries, including eight US veterans.
As Middle East Eye reported Thursday, Hamas—which Israel and the United States designate as a terrorist organization despite its governance of Gaza—called for escalating the global movement in solidarity with the strip "in rejection of the [Israeli] occupation's aggression, crimes of genocide, and starvation."
"We call for mobilizing all means to support the Global Sumud Flotilla heading to Gaza, and we warn the occupation against targeting it," Hamas also said in a statement, part of which was quoted in the Israeli ministry's post on X.
Responding on the same platform, journalist Séamus Malekafzali said: "Past comments from the Israeli government about the aid flotillas focused on celebrity vapidity or didn't mention their aim at all. Now, they're honing in on it being a supposedly terrorist instrument. Feels like the response is being set up to be more severe than in the past."
The post came two days after Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism published a report titled "Global Sumud Flotilla": A Humanitarian Cover With Documented Links to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
As Brussels Signal reported Thursday:
Flotilla representatives and critics dismissed these claims as Israeli disinformation, echoing accusations leveled at prior missions, and called the report a case of "guilt by association," reliant on photos and unverified affiliations rather than evidence of operational control.
Organizers emphasised transparent crowdfunding for aid, with no terror funding, and framed the convoy as a grassroots response to aid blockages.
Earlier this week, a commission of independent experts at the United Nations concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and an investigation from The New Humanitarian found that Israeli forces have killed nearly 3,000 Palestinian aid-seekers and wounded almost 20,000 others since October 2023. As of Thursday, the overall death toll has topped 65,000, though experts warn the true tally is likely far higher.