The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for residents of a “safe humanitarian zone” in the heart of the Gaza Strip on Sunday, expanding military operations in the area.
“To all residents and settlers in the Deir al-Balah neighborhood in Block 128 of the area marked on the map: The IDF will conduct a strong operation against Hamas and terrorist organizations in the area. Please evacuate immediately to the west for your safety. The area you are in is considered a dangerous combat zone,” the army said in a statement.
Maps released by the Israeli military make it clear that the areas where residents were asked to evacuate were within the safe humanitarian zone set by the military early in the war. The military has gradually reduced that zone, and has even carried out airstrikes inside it, killing hundreds of migrants.
Mustafa al-Bayan, a correspondent in Gaza, described the area where the army had demanded evacuation: “The designated area runs from the Deir al-Balah intersection in the south to the street leading to Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in the north, across the square’s border, that is, the area adjacent to Salah al-Din, and does not go further west, as indicated on the map.”
What is noteworthy is that the Israeli military has been issuing evacuation orders to southern Gaza at an unprecedented rate, and over the past month these orders have forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into already crowded camps.
The evacuation has pushed Palestinians into a narrow strip of land along Gaza’s southern coast that the Israeli military calls a “humanitarian zone,” and even before the latest order, the camp was overcrowded and short on food, water and medicine.
According to the United Nations, eviction orders were issued almost every other day in August, forcing about 250,000 people to flee.
The United Nations says at least 84 percent of Gaza’s population is now in evacuation zones, and estimates that 90 percent of the territory’s 2.1 million people have fled their homes and become refugees during the war.
