Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) are prohibiting Gaza residents from leaving. Israel has provided evacuation notices and warned civilians to flee, but that is not possible. The terrorists have told the civilians that these warnings from Israel are nothing more than psychological warfare and to stay put.
On October 10, 2023, the spokesperson department of Hamas’s interior ministry wrote on the ministry’s Telegram channel: “An important note: We repeat our call on the residents to ignore the voice messages being sent randomly by the occupation to their phones demanding that they leave their homes. Their goal is to arouse panic and fear as part of a psychological warfare [campaign] accompanying the occupation’s aggression against us.” Another message was posted on October 8 to a different Telegram channel: “”An important note: The occupation has been randomly sending audio and recorded messages to the phones of Gaza residents demanding that they leave their homes. We call on civilians to ignore such messages, which are aimed at arousing panic and fear and in the framework of a psychological warfare [campaign] accompanying the occupation’s aggression against our people.”
As I explained in another post, Hamas is using Palestinian civilians as their human shields. They strategically placed their weapons and secret military bases in public areas such as schools, hospitals, and mosques. They believe they could gain sympathy from the international community when these areas are bombed by Israeli forces with civilians inside. Hamas would not stand a chance if the civilians were not unknowingly guarding them. Hamas will continue to retreat behind the civilians they claim they want to liberate. Palestine has no government to overpower the terrorist group, and many have been successfully convinced that Hamas are their protectors.
