Tel Aviv , Oct 26 : The Israel Defense Force (IDF ) in a statement on Thursday said that Hamas was preventing the citizens of Gaza from evacuating. The IDF spokesmen confirmed that they had appealed to the people in the Gaza Strip to evacuate only to understand that the Hamas teleosts had blocked the access routes to Southern strip. The Military said that they had communicated to the people living in Gaza Strip but they had responded stating that all the roads were blocked. It may be noted that the United Nations had warned Israel that evacuating half of the population of Gaza was not possible and appealed not to go for a military offensive in Gaza Strip as it was densely populated. However the Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already announced that a ground military offensive was inevitable in the Gaza Strip to destroy Hamas and to bring normalcy in the region. /IANS