Norwegian Refugee Chief Slams Israel’s Gaza Evacuation Order as “War Crime”
Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, has blasted Israel’s order to forcibly evacuate over a million Palestinians from northern Gaza as a “war crime.” Speaking to Sky News, Egeland warned Western and Arab nations to pressure Israel to cancel the order, which he says breaks international humanitarian law by forcibly uprooting civilians with no guarantee of their return.
“This is a flagrant violation of international law and must be called what it is — a war crime,” Egeland said.
IDF Strikes Hezbollah Amid Rising Tensions
As tensions soar, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) launched an airstrike against Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon. The strike was retaliation for unidentified aerial drones infiltrating Israeli airspace and an attack on an IDF drone.
The Israeli military has also ramped up raids in Gaza. They uncovered human remains of those missing since last month’s Hamas attacks. Local reports reveal Israeli forces entered an area suspected of holding up to 200 hostages by Hamas, recovering bodies and personal belongings of the missing.
Mass Displacement and International Outcry
- The UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA says tens of thousands have fled south in Gaza since the evacuation order.
- Over 400,000 Palestinians were already displaced across Gaza before the order.
- The situation for those fleeing remains deadly amid ongoing Israeli air raids.
Kuwait’s foreign ministry condemned the forced evacuation and expressed grave concern for Palestinian civilians scrambling to escape ahead of a feared Israeli ground invasion. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has slammed the bombing of Gaza civilians and called for an immediate halt to the violence in a call with UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.
Calls for Peace Amid Rising Violence
Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud demanded the lifting of the Gaza siege and stressed adherence to previous peace agreements. These latest clashes and forced displacements have triggered a fresh wave of international calls to end the bloodshed and find a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.
