To turn is לִפְנות, a simple verb.
For example:
ברמזור, פני שמאלה.
At the traffic light, turn left. (spoken to a female)
To clear something like a table – or people from their homes in an evacuation – is לְפַנות, a פיעל verb.
For example:
פינו אותם מבתיהם לא הרבה זמן אחרי הטבח.
They were evacuated (literally, they evacuated them) from their homes not long after the massacre.
Likewise, someone evacuated is מפונֶה if he’s a male and מפונָה if she’s a female. And when discussing that population of hundreds of thousands of evacuees from Israel’s borders with Lebanon and Gaza, the word you’ll hear is מפונים.
For example:
גם המפונים מחכים לחזור הביתה.
The evacuees are also waiting to return home.
מפונים uses the passive פועל verb form.
להתפנות, a התפעל verb of the same root, means to become available – or to go to the bathroom.
