The office also says it is shocked that Israel is continuing the attacks more than a week after they began, while there are tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians in the now apparently cordoned-off area.
On Monday morning, at least ten people were killed and over 40 wounded in an Israeli attack on a food station in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, and later on Monday at least eight more were killed and many wounded in an attack in the Sheikh Radawan neighborhood of Gaza City.
People are trapped without access to food and other supplies, states the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) about the situation in northern Gaza.
– In the shadow of the escalation of fighting in the Middle East, the Israeli military appears to have completely cut off northern Gaza from the rest of the Gaza Strip, and they are carrying out attacks without any regard for the lives and safety of Palestinian civilians, writes OHCHR in a statement on Monday.
Piles of sand
According to the report, the office has also received reports that Israeli forces have placed piles of sand at an important crossroads, which in practice cuts off northern Gaza from the rest of the area. Anyone who tries to flee will be fired upon, according to the message.
The Office expresses concern that the isolation of northern Gaza means that Israel has no intention of allowing Palestinian civilians to return to their homes, and that the evacuation order involves a large-scale forced displacement of the entire civilian population.
Israel says that the evacuation order aims to separate Hamas fighters from civilians, and denies that there is a concrete plan to clear civilians out of Jabalia and other areas.
Jabalia and focus
The Jabalia camp has been the focus of an Israeli offensive for around ten days, and the IDF has surrounded the camp and sent tanks into the towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, with the stated aim of clearing out alleged Hamas forces attempting to regroup himself there.
People in Jabalia are caught between Israeli demands to move south and Hamas warnings against leaving as it is too dangerous.
Many do not want to move from their homes anyway and fear that they will never be able to return if they leave.
– We are attacked from the air and from the ground, non-stop for a week. They want us to leave, they want to punish us for refusing to leave our homes, says 26-year-old Marwa, who has moved with her family to a school in Gaza City.
Impossible living conditions
But the offensive has shown how impossible life has become for civilians in Gaza while the fighting has shifted from place to place in Gaza, and the population is repeatedly pressured to move from place to place.
The UN calls the living conditions of the 50,000 Palestinians still in the camp hopeless, without clean water, bakeries, health centers or shelters.
The northern part of Gaza, with more than half of the enclave’s population of 2.3 million, was subjected to intense bombing in the first phase of the war, and hundreds of thousands of people had to leave their homes following Israeli evacuation orders. 400,000 people still remained in northern Gaza, according to the UN.
Fear of cleansing
A plan put forward by a group of former generals is raising fears that Israel aims to completely clear northern Gaza of civilians so that remaining fighters can be forced to surrender.
But IDF spokesperson Nadav Shoshani denies that there is such a plan, and says that their purpose is to evacuate civilians while the military operates against “terrorist cells” in Jabalia.
General Giora Eiland, who is the main author of the plan, says that his plan is intended to pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages without the need to send in soldiers.
Polio vaccination underway
This week, the UN has started the second round of polio vaccinations in Gaza after the first round was carried out earlier in the autumn.
– Polio vaccination in central Gaza has begun. We urge all parents and caregivers to ensure that their children receive the vaccine, writes the World Health Organization’s office in the occupied territories on X Monday.
591,700 children under the age of ten, who received the first dose a few weeks ago, are scheduled to receive the second dose. The vaccination will take place in three phases: First in central Gaza, then in the south and finally in the north.
There is greater concern about this round than the first vaccination round due to Israel’s escalation in northern Gaza in recent weeks.
– The conditions on the ground are much more complicated this time, said Jean Gough in Unicef on Sunday.
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