Image Credit: Anadolu / Contributor / Getty 
(LifeSiteNews) — With the long-time goal of expelling the Palestinian people, and razingevery building to the ground, the Israeli occupation army has ordered a full evacuation of Gaza City which they have also afflicted with an ongoing and crushing famine.
In a post on X, IDF Arabic language spokesman Avichay Adraee addressed his statement to “all residents of the city of Gaza and those present in all its neighborhoods, from the Old City and Tafah to the east and up to the sea to the west.”
Continuing, he said the Israeli military is “determined to eliminate Hamas and will operate in the Gaza city area with great force, as it has operated in various parts of the Strip.”
With apparent indifference to the fact that forced displacement qualifies as an international crime against humanity and an act of genocide, the tweet told the Palestinian civilians in the region to “evacuate immediately” to the south where the Israeli army continues to bomb and shoot unarmed and starving Palestinians.
Since the Israeli army began its current offensive in the region last month, this order marks the first time the entire city was ordered to evacuate with only sections of the city being affected during previous assaults.
While the Israeli army estimates that more than one million Palestinians resided in Gaza City prior to their current operation, reports from humanitarian organizations indicate around 100,000 have evacuated the city with an estimated 50,000 traveling south across the Israeli controlled Netzarim Corridor, where they risk never being able to return to the north.
Thus, the vast majority of Palestinians remain in the city, likely due to the convictions they will not be safer in the south, or for those sick or malnourished as a result of Israel’s man-made famine will not be able to survive the journey.
Embed from Getty ImagesGAZA CITY, GAZA – SEPTEMBER 11: Palestinians, including children, gather during the food distribution in Gaza city center, on September 11, 2025. Due to the ongoing attacks by Israel on the Gaza Strip, Palestinians facing difficulties accessing food received food distribution from a charity. Crowds gathered during the distribution in Nuseirat camp in Gaza. (Photo by Moiz Salhi/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Understanding that the Israelis have made their intentions of a full ethnic cleansing very clear, others refuse to leave knowing they will not be able to return.
“Stop the war for God’s sake! I am not leaving”
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) September 10, 2025
A Palestinian father breaks down in front of his tent after it was destroyed in an Israeli strike that targeted a tower and leveled it to the ground. He appeals to the world to stop the Israeli genocide, saying there is nowhere… pic.twitter.com/c8SbRv2V4X
Of those who have decided to stay are Catholic and Orthodox religious and clergy who have concluded their responsibility is to remain with the disabled and malnourished of their displaced flocks who have been taking shelter in their respective Gaza City parishes.
In an August 26 statement from the Latin and Greek Patriarchates of Jerusalem, led by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Theophilos III, respectively, it was explained that for those weakened and malnourished due to Israel’s man-made famine, along with the disabled, leaving Gaza City “and trying to flee to the south would be nothing less than a death sentence.”
Embed from Getty ImagesGAZA STRIP – SEPTEMBER 11: Palestinians move toward central Gaza through Al-Rashid Street using vehicles, horse carts, and traveling on foot with their limited belongings, as intensified Israeli attacks on northern Gaza force them to flee, in the Gaza Strip on September 11, 2025. (Photo by Stringer/Anadolu via Getty Images)
And thus, for these reasons, St. Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, along with clergy who have been attending to these vulnerable, “have decided to remain and continue to care for all those who will be in the compounds.”
In a breaking news report the same day, LifeSiteNews Editor-in-Chief John-Henry Westen called this commitment an “act of heroism” and an “incredible witness to the world” that these religious would place themselves “in the line of fire rather than forsake the least of Christ’s little ones.”
Reliable reports of Palestinians killed by Israel since October 7, 2023 include at least 64,522 in Gaza, approximately 20,000 children, with 163,096 injured, and more than 10,000 children who have lost at least one leg. These numbers do not include approximately 14,000 individuals who are missing and presumed dead under the rubble.
According to a rationale presented in a July 2024 Lancet study, one can conservatively estimate total deaths, including indirect fatalities due to causes like starvation, lack of medicine or proper medical care to include 322,610 (141,948 children).
As the Israelis continue their daily violent massacres across the Strip, including the destroying of dozens of high-rise buildings in the city, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened these Palestinians in Gaza City on Monday that the aggressions would only intensify and they should immediately “[g]et out of there!” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz also committed to striking the city with a “powerful hurricane” of Israeli bombardment in the very near future.
