‘No Place Is Safe’ as Israeli Offensive Spreads to Southern Gaza Strip
(Source - UNRWA/X)
The Israeli army called for mass evacuation from Khan Younis, the main city in the southern Gaza Strip, as it widens its ground offensive to the south.
As the ground attack first focused in the north, with Gaza City as the main objective, an estimated 1.7 million became displaced in the densely populated Gaza Strip. The vast majority fled south, with tens of thousands coming to Khan Younis, where the new ground offensive is closing in.
On Sunday, Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters, “The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) continues to extend its ground operation against Hamas centres in all of the Gaza Strip.”
Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas from the Gaza Strip following Hamas’ 7 October attacks on Israel, in which an estimated 1,200 people were killed and 240 were taken hostage. In response, Israel launched a series of air strikes as well as a ground offensive on the Strip.
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), over 15,000 Palestinians have been killed in since the war began – including over 4,000 women and 6,000 children. About 40% of the Gaza Strip population is under the age of 14.
After a week-long truce, which saw some of the Israeli hostages swapped with Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, hostilities have resumed with Hamas once again launching rockets towards Isreael and Israel ramping up operations for a ground invasion of the south of Gaza.
https://twitter.com/UNRWA/status/1731615171926270140
Disease Risk in Gaza
In the past days, the IDF published a map dividing the Gaza strip up into 620 sectors. The map is meant to guide Palestinian civilians to safe areas to evacuate to before an attack, but with many lacking electricity or Internet access, this information remains out of reach. There have also been reports of people falling victim to strikes while evacuating, or after reaching a supposedly safe area.
Halima Abdel-Rahman, who was among the people who fled to the Khan Younis area, has told Associated Press (AP) that she no longer plans to heed evacuation orders.
“The (Israeli) occupation tells you to go to this area, then they bomb it,” the widowed mother-of-four told AP on Sunday. “The reality is that no place is safe in Gaza. They kill people in the north. They kill people in the south.”
With hundreds of thousands displaced Palestinians living in cramped and precarious conditions in southern Gaza, with no access to vehicles or fuel, evacuation is near impossible for many. Yet more people are attemping to flee further south to Rafah, on the border with Egypt, where resources are already spread thin.
According to the UNRWA, more than 950,000 displaced people are already sheltering in 99 UN centres. With the end of the truce and thus the end of humanitarian aid deliveries, resources are being quickly depleted. The agency now fears outbreaks of disease may add to the toll.
“People have lost everything and they need everything,” a statement by UNRWA reads. “Gaza’s population will soon begin dying from diseases as well as Israeli bombardment.”
