Leila Molana-Allen:
They try, but they don't, and certainly not in that amount of time.
And the IDF did themselves acknowledge that. They said later, we understand this takes time. We didn't mean it had to be done within 24 hours. We're just trying to give a warning.
And, of course, firstly, they're trying to protect themselves and say, we are trying to get civilians out. But the other thing that is a potential interesting possibility is, the solution here possibly is Egypt.
There is this crossing where you could come out of Gaza into Egypt. Now, it has been bombed, but they could facilitate an evacuation through there. It's two million people. The population of Egypt is about 110 million. They could take these people. Politically, they don't want to. They don't want to take on the Palestinian cause right now.
But if Israel is able to push down two million civilians onto that border, it would be incredibly difficult for Egypt refused to take any of them, if they are running from war, there are wounded women and children desperate on this border. So that's possibly a strategic calculation for the Israelis as well, that they're trying to create a flash point that Egypt cannot say no to and that receives a huge amount of international pressure.
In the meantime, absolutely horrific scenes, roads bombed everywhere. How will people drive down them? They don't have fuel because of the siege that's happening. Nothing can go in or out. The hospitals already can't cope. The electricity is out across Gaza. They don't have generators to run their equipment.
They're dealing with so many wounded people. If they have to evacuate the hospitals from half of the country — from half the Gaza Strip, and everyone has to go to the other area, that hospital is already overwhelmed, can't take any more. I have been getting desperate calls and messages from people all day: What do we do? My children, how can I get them out? How can we get there? Can anyone take us?
Messages rocketing around everybody, just trying to find a way to evacuate, and they haven't got the support inside.
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