Having decided–not for the first time–to ignore my advice and eschew a ground attack on Gaza, the Israelis gave a 24 hour notice for the residents of the northern part of the area to evacuate. Does that make sense?
Yes. Hamas wants to fight a guerrilla war in the midst of civilians in the urbanized areas of Gaza. The time-honored technique of dealing with guerrilla tactics is to separate the combatants from the civilians. This is Israel’s way of doing that; it will assume that everyone who stays is a fighter, and act accordingly.
The decision to invade means Israel is prioritizing physical control of Gaza over the minimization of casualties and the safety of the hostages, who are probably going to die in the assault. The Israelis have a moral obligation to permit humanitarian aid for the people who have evacuated, since they are clearly identifying themselves as non-combatants. They also need to give the evacuation a reasonable time to occur. Thus far, neither has happened.