Israel Warns Gazans to Flee Homes with Leaflets

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

Israeli warplanes have dropped leaflets on several Gaza City neighborhoods urging people to evacuate their homes immediately.

Tuesday's warnings could signal a new round of heavy airstrikes on residential areas in the Palestinian territory.

The leaflets say "For your safety, you are required to evacuate your residences immediately and move toward central Gaza City" and list areas where people should go.

Palestinian militants have urged residents to ignore the warnings, calling them "psychological warfare."

Read more: http://www.kaaltv.com/article/stories/S2841200.shtml?cat=10728

[HERVEPA]

1. Nice that the "militants" are so concerned for the welfare of their people

[msongs]

2. nice that the Israelites are giving advance notice of their impending atrocities nt

[Scootaloo]

5. "Israelites"?

[hack89]

36. If the population heeds the warnings then there won't be any atrocities. nt

[MNBrewer]

3. Contrasted with the "concern" for the welfare of the residents of Gaza on the part of the Israelis?

Where are there supposed to go? Gaza isn't THAT big!

[HERVEPA]

44. Israel's targeting is rather specific.

[MNBrewer]

45. "rather specific"

well, that's "rather reassuring".

[azurnoir]

4. here is more about Israel's leafletting

During the 2008-9 Israeli military assault on Gaza, the army sent thousands of similar messages to mobile phones in Gaza. But according to several friends and acquaintances who were there, the messages were often either false alarms or designed to sow panic. “What do you do if you receive a message warning you to go a safer place if you are already in the safest place in Gaza, or if you have nowhere to hide?” one friend asked rhetorically.

This same woman — a journalist — said that often the text messages would warn of impending bombardments that did not happen, in a sick version of The Boy Who Cried Wolf.

http://972mag.com/idf-sends-text-message-to-gaza-mobile-phones-the-next-phase-is-on-the-way/60046/

[Ash_F]

6. Flee to where?

There aren't exactly many places to run to.

[dipsydoodle]

8. Well it is roughly twice the size of DC

Must be lots of places to go.

[riderinthestorm]

19. Pretty bullshit article. On NPR the leaflets are being dropped over a specific Northern area

and directing the residents to go to the city central square.

[Adsos Letter]

23. You are correct.

Here is a copy of the leaflet text:

Photo of leaflet dropped on Gaza by Israeli military (Photo of leaflet is at site linked)

Translation:

Military Announcement

To the residents of Sheikh Ijleen, Tal al Hawa, Remal al-Janoub, Zeitoun neighbourhood, Shoujaiyat al-Tourkman, Shoujaiyat al-Jadida:

The Israeli military is not targeting any of you and does not want to hurt you or members of your family.

For your own safety, you are requested to evacuate your houses right away and to move towards Gaza city through Cairo Road, Arab League Road, al-Aqsa Road, al-Qadisiya Road, Em el Leymoun, Salaheddine, al-Mansoura, Khalas, Baghdad.

The deployment in Gaza city is limited in the west of Salah al-Din Road, north of Omar al Moukhtar Road, East of Nasr Road, and south of al-Qods Road.

This confrontation is temporary and once it ends everyone will go home.

Obeying the orders of the Israeli military will result in you, civilian residents, not being hurt

The Israeli Defence Army Leadership

http://blogs.aljazeera.com/topic/gaza/photo-leaflet-dropped-gaza-israeli-military

Warning about a very specific area and listing specific corridors of safe travel. Emphasis added.

[Ash_F]

31. Thanks for the additional info /nt

[Sunlei]

33. a clear leaflet. Has anyone read of any group support for the evaced civilian residents?

Is the Red cross on the ground there? I haven't found any charity limited to citizen support.

[The Wielding Truth]

7. This is not a good sign.

[Puregonzo1188]

9. Where are they supposed to go? Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on earth and is

under blockade.

These leaflets are a sick joke.

[riderinthestorm]

20. This is a pretty bullshit article. On NPR they were saying that the leaflets were being dropped

in pretty specific northern neighborhoods and the residents were being advised to go to a central city square for safety.

[Comrade Grumpy]

10. Isn't this the very definition of terrorism? "Flee, or we will kill you."

[joshcryer]

11. I've never known of a terrorist to give a specific warning like that.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. You should read about the IRA

They had a system of codewords that they'd contact the media with, so that everyone would know the warning they sent in that they were about to bomb somewhere was genuine. That way, they got to make people panic, do what the IRA told them, and then claim that they had concerns for 'civilians'.

[joshcryer]

15. They did it beforehand and with ample time to escape?

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. They placed the bombs, then phoned in that it was about to go off

A bit different from "we will bomb/shell your house tomorrow", but then they didn't have planes or artillery with unlimited movement. People typically had minutes to evacuate the area, though the warning wouldn't be specific enough to allow a bomb disposal squad to find and defuse it in time.

[Nihil]

35. Not really - the IRA just liked to play the same PR games as the US military does.

e.g., "They gave a warning" that was for the wrong location (different town ) and also
omitted to "warn" about the second bomb that was placed in the evacuation zone
and timed to detonate a minute or so after the first one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrington_bomb_attacks

In short, the IRA were murdering cowardly fuckers.

[Puregonzo1188]

27. Really? You must not know very much about terrorism.

[joshcryer]

28. Got any other examples?

The IRA example is interesting.

[leftyohiolib]

13. didnt the us drop leaflets over hiroshima before dropping the bomb

[riderinthestorm]

24. Yes. 5 days notice if I recall correctly. Very few evacuated however. nt

[Robb]

34. We did it a whole bunch in 1990.

We dropped leaflets via high speed, low level F-18s and F-16s. We addressed them to the particular Iraqi army companies we were showering. Simply said "the next one will be a bomb, not a note."

Remember all those abandoned heavy weapons and long lines of surrendered troops you saw on CNN?

[glacierbay]

40. Since when have terrorists given warning?

Israel is trying to minimize casualties while Hamas is telling residents to ignore the warnings and hopes to create civilian deaths for their sick propaganda. More proof that Hamas doesn't give a shit about the it's citizens welfare.

[leftyohiolib]

12. they should all flee into isreal

[kelliekat44]

17. And flee to where? Karma will still be a bitch when it comes around!

[Purveyor]

18. +1 eom

[oberliner]

25. Very specific locations are identified

The leaflets indicate exactly which areas within Gaza are being targeted and which areas are not.

[hack89]

38. The leaflets give safe areas and safe routes. nt

[Fumesucker]

21. And hey, we'll let you back in, honest, you can trust us n/t

[Purveyor]

22. What? Are there no railroads. eom

[oberliner]

26. Israel has no control over internal movement within Gaza

They are simply indicating very specific areas that are being targeted and urging residents to move to other areas within Gaza that are not.

As over 99.99 percent of the population of Gaza are not being killed or injured, there are presumably many areas that are safe, especially considering how densely populated the territory is.

[Purveyor]

30. LOL, indeed. Where do you come up with this shit? Seriously. eom

[oberliner]

32. The contents of the leaflets are posted in this thread

Everything else I've written is just undisputed facts. Israel has no control over internal movement in Gaza - and a miniscule percentage of the population of Gaza have been casualties of Israeli attacks.

One would think you would know these things being such an avid follower.

[Puregonzo1188]

41. So this is just collective punishment/terrorism then? After all if everyone can leave then you

aren't getting the bad guys just blowing up people's stuff for no reason? Kind of like when they bulldoze homes and Olive Trees in the West Bank?

I bet you probably think if your neighbor commits a crime then you should get your house blown up/bulldozed too and if you don't like it--on the spot execution.

[oberliner]

42. No

It's an attempt to attack the terrorist infrastructure within Gaza while minimizing the number of civilian casualties - which is not an easy task.

[mrf901]

29. Property belonging to Hamas will get blowed up

good news for people in the building trades
and others such as metal scrappers

[slackmaster]

37. Automatic Rec for bad writing

What if your home doesn't have leaflets?

[aandegoons]

39. Also known as the hurry up and get out in the open so we can shoot you.

Be safe my friends.

[oberliner]

43. Actually the opposite of that

Can you really believe this?