Israel Evacuation Order Largest in Gaza since October, Says UN

Israel Evacuation Order Largest in Gaza since October, Says UN

Displaced Palestinians leave an area of east Khan Younis after the Israeli army issued an evacuation order for parts of the city and Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. (Photo: AFP)

The United Nations said, on Tuesday, that an order by Israel for Palestinians to evacuate areas of Khan Younis and Rafah was the largest such edict in the Gaza Strip since 1.1 million people were told to leave the north of the enclave in October, Reuters reported.

UN spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said Monday’s evacuation order applies to about a third of Gaza and initial estimates by the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) showed that some 250,000 people may have been currently living in that area.

Dujarric said “an evacuation of such a massive scale will only heighten the suffering of civilians and drive humanitarian needs even higher”.

“People are left with the impossible choice of having to relocate, some most likely for the second or third time, to areas that have barely any spaces or services, or staying in areas where they know heavy fighting will take place,” he said.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas burst into southern Israel on 7 October, killed 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages, including civilians and soldiers, back into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

The offensive launched by Israel in retaliation has killed nearly 38,000 people, according to the Gaza health ministry, and has left the heavily built-up coastal enclave in ruins. Some 2.3 million people live in Gaza.

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