Hamas: Gaza City Operation Would Be "Humanitarian Disaster"

Hamas released the following statement today (Thursday) regarding Israel's planned expansion of the war to take Gaza City and entirely eliminate Hamas forces there:

"Warning against the implementation of Israel's plan to besiege Gaza City, reinvade it, and forcibly uproot its residents. This would constitute a major humanitarian disaster for the 1.2 million residents of the city and the displaced. There is no safe place in the Strip. If Israel continues with its plan, it will be a death sentence and uprooting of 1.2 million people without shelter or anywhere to go."

Multiple European countries have also warned against expanding operations into the Gaza Strip, warning of dire humanitarian consequences if the IDF tries to evacuate the population or engage in a war in such a densely populated area.

This is not the first time multiple countries have warned of dire humanitarian consequences if the IDF launched operations against densely populated areas in the Gaza Strip, or tried to evacuate the civilian population en masse to a safe area.

In the summer of 2024, when Prime Minister Netanyahu declared his intention to launch an offensive against Hamas forces in the major city of Rafah, at the southern end of the Gaza Strip, President Biden even threatened to cut off the supply of weapons to prevent him from causing what he and his administration thought would be a humanitarian disaster.

In the end, the evacuation of Rafah proceeded relatively smoothly, within a few weeks, and the predicted disaster did not materialize.

It is unclear whether things will go as smoothly in Gaza City, given the large pro-Hamas population that has ignored evacuation orders before. Furthermore, evacuating so many to a new humanitarian zone may cause problems of its own due to the density involved.

Time will tell if this operation is a new Rafah or whether it proves the doomsaying of Hamas.