A leading medical aid group says Israeli evacuation orders for parts of northern Gaza are turning it into an “unliveable wasteland” and “effectively emptying out the whole” area of Palestinians.
Since Sunday, the Israeli military has issued evacuation orders for three large areas in northern Gaza — including Beit Hanoun, Jabalya, and Beit Lahia — saying it launched a new ground offensive there to combat efforts by Hamas to rebuild its capabilities in the area.
The orders “affect hundreds of thousands of people, particularly in northern Gaza where more than 400,000 people are under pressure to move southward,” according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Calling the decrees the “latest forced mass displacement” in the area, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said people in parts of northern Gaza are being “urged to move to the overcrowded, so-called humanitarian zone between Al-Mawasi and Deir Al-Balah, where one million people are already living in inhumane conditions.”
The “zone also remains unsafe for civilians and aid workers, as Israeli forces continue to repeatedly strike the area,” the organization said.
“These forced mass evacuations of homes and bombing of neighbourhoods by the Israeli forces are turning the north of Gaza into an unliveable wasteland, effectively emptying out the whole north of the Strip of Palestinian life.”
Just last month, an Israeli strike on Al-Mawasi killed at least 19 people and wounded dozens. The Israeli military confirmed the strike and said the operation targeted Hamas fighters there.
CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment.
