Only 11 per cent of the Gaza Strip is not under evacuation orders, a UN official said Tuesday, Anadolu Agency reported.

Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office, said at a UN briefing in Geneva that, since Friday, the Israeli army issued three new evacuation orders “for over 19 neighbourhoods in northern Gaza and in Deir Al-Balah with more than 8,000 people staying “in these areas, many sheltering in displacement sites”.

The number of massive evacuation orders in August alone rose to 16, Laerke said, adding that it affected UN and humanitarian staff, non-governmental organisations as well as service providers “along with their families”.

“These relocations took place at very short notice and in dangerous conditions. Our humanitarian colleagues on the ground are particularly worried about the order issued Sunday,” he said.

Laerke also said that the Karm Abu Salem border crossing was “technically open for entry, but it is too dangerous for aid organisations to actually go there and pick up whatever aid is being dropped off just across the border.”

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip following an attack by the Palestinian group, Hamas, last 7 October, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.

The onslaught has resulted in nearly 40,500 Palestinian deaths, mostly women and children, and over 93,600 injuries, according to local health authorities.

An ongoing blockade of Gaza has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine, leaving much of the region in ruins.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on 6 May.