“To imagine that you could move one million people in 24 hours in a situation like Gaza can only be a humanitarian crisis,” Josep Borrell told a press conference in Beijing on Saturday.
“I am saying that, representing the official position of the European Union, … [Israel’s evacuation plan] is utterly, utterly impossible to implement,” he added.
Israel’s military on Friday ordered 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza to evacuate their homes, amid signs it is set to ramp up its offensive against Hamas following the group’s attacks that killed more than 1,300 people.
For six days, Israeli warplanes have pounded Gaza with airstrikes that have reduced streets and homes to rubble and killed more than 1,900 people, including 614 children and 370 women, and injured nearly 7,700 others, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
The World Health Organization and other United Nations bodies have joined a call for Israel’s military to rescind its order for all Palestinians to leave northern Gaza within 24 hours.
