About 500,000 Israelis have been internally displaced since Hamas’s deadly Oct. 7 attacks, an Israeli army spokesman said at a news conference on Tuesday.
“About half a million Israelis have become displaced” within Israel’s borders. “We evacuated the entire south of Israel, all places near the Gaza Strip, following government directives. (…) We did the same in the north, where 20 settlements near the border were evacuated,” Jonathan Conricus said.
“Most of these people left on their own initiative, and now the city of Sderot” in the south is being evacuated, he said. “We don’t want civilians near war zones. First of all, we want to protect our citizens from the devastating consequences war,” he added.