By Sara Gomez Armas
Jerusalem, Aug 24 (EFE).– Israel ordered new evacuations in central Gaza on Saturday, including in two refugee camps, as it prepares for another ground offensive.
The humanitarian zone for civilians has now been reduced to less than 9.5 percent of Gaza’s territory, affecting areas like Deir al-Balah and the Maghazi refugee camp.
“We urge everyone in the areas of Masdar, Maghazi, Harat Basateen, Ansar, Dimitha, Safa, Sidra, and eastern Deir al-Balah to immediately evacuate for their safety and move to the humanitarian zone,” said the army’s Arabic-speaking spokesperson, Avichay Adraee.
Israel is nearing the completion of its ground incursion into Khan Yunis in the south, having announced this week the defeat of the Rafah Brigade’s four battalions in the southernmost part of Gaza, where its troops entered in May. Gazans now anticipate a military offensive in the central region.
In June, the Israeli army rescued four hostages alive from the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central area, and military intelligence has identified several hostages believed to be alive in the region.
In Khan Yunis, however, Israeli forces have only recovered the bodies of deceased captives, including six this week.
Recently, Israeli troops have advanced in central Gaza, surrounding the city of Deir al-Balah, which had so far been spared from fighting but not from air strikes. Since dawn, there have been numerous bombings in the town and the nearby Nuseirat camp, where an attack on residential towers killed at least three people.
Deir al-Balah, home to one of the few operational hospitals in Gaza, the Martyrs of Al Aqsa, had become a key center for displaced people. However, the areas declared as a “humanitarian zone” have been further restricted.
According to Deir al-Balah Municipality, around 100,000 Palestinians have been displaced from the eastern part of the city in the past two days due to intense and continuous Israeli airstrikes. Twenty shelters have also been rendered inoperative.
Minimum Humanitarian Area Gazan authorities reported that since the beginning of the war, the “humanitarian zone” supposedly safe for civilians has shrunk from 230 sq km (63 percent of the territory) in October to 35 sq km, now covering only 9.5 percent of Gaza’s territory.
According to UN data, Israeli authorities have issued about 20 evacuation orders between July and August, primarily in the Khan Yunis area, displacing over 250,000 people.
On Thursday, Israel issued new evacuation orders in towns neighboring Khan Yunis, such as Bani Suhaila, and on Friday, called for the evacuation of several towns in northern Gaza after Hamas launched two rockets from there toward the Israeli town of Sderot.
Ninety percent of Gaza’s population, over two million people, has been displaced during the war. Infectious and skin diseases are spreading rapidly in overcrowded camps for displaced persons, exacerbated by a lack of sanitation, clean water, and hygiene supplies.
The Hamas-controlled Health Ministry reported that about 70 people were killed in Gaza over the past 48 hours (as of midnight on Friday), bringing the total number of fatalities in the 10-month Israeli offensive to 40,334, with 93,356 wounded and approximately 10,000 missing.
Since dawn, medical sources have reported around 50 more deaths in various attacks in southern and central Gaza, most of them in Khan Yunis. The city’s main hospital, Naser, received and identified 33 bodies.
In the Al Amal neighborhood of western Khan Yunis, an attack on the Kalaj family home claimed 11 lives, including four children. A drone strike in the Katiba area of the city center killed a dozen people, while eight others died in an attack on a motorized tuk-tuk in the same neighborhood.
The ministry of health also warned of a severe shortage of medicines, with more than 60 percent of essential drugs and 83 percent of basic medical supplies now depleted. EFE
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