IDF tells medical authorities, aid organizations to prep for civilian evacuation from Gaza City

The military says it has begun to give “initial warnings” to medical authorities and international organizations in the northern Gaza Strip, ahead of the planned offensive in Gaza City.

The IDF says that as part of its preparations to evacuate the civilian population from Gaza City to the Strip’s south, officers of COGAT’s Coordination and Liaison Administration to Gaza on Tuesday told medical officials and aid groups in the northern part of the enclave “to prepare for the population’s movement to the southern Gaza Strip.”

“I am speaking with you about the possibility of the army entering Gaza City. There will be a full evacuation from Gaza to the southern Strip,” a COGAT officer is heard saying in a call with a health official in Gaza, according to a transcript provided by the IDF.

“This requires you to prepare a plan for transferring medical equipment from north to south, so that you can provide care for all patients in the southern Strip and prepare the hospitals to receive patients coming from the north,” the officer says.

“It is important to us that you receive this from an official source. We are going to provide you with a place to be, whether it is a field hospital or any other hospital,” he adds.

The IDF says the officers emphasized to the medical officials that “the hospital infrastructures in the southern Gaza Strip are being adapted for the absorption of the sick and wounded, alongside an increased entry of necessary medical equipment in accordance with the requests of the international aid organizations.”