Gaza – The Civil Defense Authority in the Gaza Strip announced yesterday, Saturday, that Israel is placing more than 450,000 Palestinian citizens under the burden of “new humanitarian challenges,” after reducing the area that it previously classified as “safe humanitarian” in the Gaza Strip.
Mahmoud Basal, the agency’s spokesman, said in a statement: “The Israeli occupation’s reduction of the areas it calls safe humanitarian areas, in the areas east and central Khan Yunis (south), and in Deir al-Balah, al-Maghazi, and al-Zawaida (central), places more than 450,000 citizens under the burden of new humanitarian challenges.”
Basal added: “Once again, the occupation forces are forcing citizens in some areas and camps in the Gaza Strip to forcibly leave their homes that they destroyed, and their shelters, to increase their suffering.”
He pointed out that “international humanitarian law prohibits the displacement of populations through fear, violence or starvation.”
He explained that “the occupation’s forcing of thousands of citizens in Khan Yunis and in the refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip to repeatedly displace them has led to their overcrowding in harsh conditions that threaten their lives and exacerbate the humanitarian crisis.”
Basal called on the United Nations and the International Court of Justice to “intervene to stop this policy practiced by the occupation, which violates international humanitarian law.”
He called on the United Nations to “pressure Israel to stop the policy of displacing citizens from their residential areas in the Strip.”
On Saturday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) warned, in a post on the X platform, of “Israel’s reduction of the alleged humanitarian zone” to only 11 percent of the Gaza Strip, which caused chaos and fear among the displaced.
The UN agency said, “Thousands of Palestinian families continue to be displaced in the Gaza Strip as Israeli authorities issue new evacuation orders, with nowhere safe to go.”
She renewed her call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
On Friday, the Israeli army called on residents of eastern Deir al-Balah, the town of al-Qarara, blocks in the al-Mawasi area, Hamad City, and the al-Jalaa and al-Nasr neighborhoods north of Khan Yunis to evacuate immediately, threatening to begin a “military operation there.”
This came in paper leaflets dropped by Israeli planes on different areas in the cities of Deir al-Balah and Khan Yunis.
In this regard, UNRWA Communications Officer Louise Waterridge said in a post on her X account that “new (Israeli) evacuation orders target thousands of affected Palestinian families in central and southern Gaza.”
Waterridge pointed out that “thousands of affected Palestinian families recently arrived in the area targeted on Friday evening by new Israeli evacuation orders, following previous evacuation orders in the city of Khan Yunis (south).”
She also explained that “there is nothing in the Gaza Strip but windows, houses and shattered lives, and the Palestinians are trapped in this endless nightmare.”
Waterridge attached a photo showing the extent of the destruction of buildings in the Gaza Strip that were leveled to the ground, as well as wrecked cars.
The area that the Israeli army claims is “humanitarian and safe” represents most of the Mawasi area that extends along the Mediterranean coastline, for a distance of 12 kilometers and a depth of one kilometer, from Deir al-Balah in the north, passing through Khan Yunis Governorate and up to Rafah in the south, in addition to other parts of the cities of Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah in the center.
Anatolia
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2024-08-19 13:19:30
