The mother of Ahmed Dawabsha walks on the rubble of her house in Duma, occupied West Bank, July 3, 2024, after it was demolished by the Israeli army who arrested her son in April over the killing of a teenage Israeli settler in April.Share
Israeli forces carried out attacks Wednesday in the central and southern Gaza Strip as Palestinian civilians sought new areas of shelter after the latest Israeli evacuation order.
The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas fighters with airstrikes in the southern city of Rafah, while ground operations took place in Gaza City’s Shujaiya district in northern Gaza.
The United Nations expressed deep concern Tuesday over the Israeli evacuation order for a large swath of the southern Gaza Strip, which the U.N. said affects tens of thousands of civilians.
“Yesterday’s order for evacuation of 117 square kilometers in Khan Younis and Rafah governorates applies to about a third of the Gaza Strip – making it the largest such order since October, when residents were ordered to evacuate northern Gaza,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told reporters.
The U.N. agency that assists Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, estimates that nearly 250,000 people may have resided in the areas under the order at the time it was issued.
Dujarric said people in those areas are left with the “impossible choice” of having to relocate again, to areas that have barely any spaces or services, or staying where they know fighting will take place.
He said the new evacuation order covers an area with more than 90 schools, most of which are housing the displaced, as well as four medical points.
Israeli forces carried out attacks in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, with Palestinian health officials saying at least eight people were killed in Khan Younis.
Israel has repeatedly told Palestinians to leave certain parts of Gaza, usually ahead of military offensives, in a move Israel says is meant to protect civilians from the war. The evacuations, along with the fighting, have meant people have had to flee multiple times in search of safety.
