The Palestine Chronicle / August 23, 2024
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced on Friday that the Israeli occupation army has forcibly displaced 250.000 Palestinians in August alone in the Gaza Strip.
“Mass evacuations in Gaza choke survival and severely constrain aid operations. During August alone, Israeli forces have issued 12 evacuation orders, forcing almost 250,000 people to move yet again,” the United Nations organization wrote on X.
The post built on a statement previously made by Muhannad Hadi, the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Hadi’s statement published on August 22 said that “successive mass evacuation orders issued by Israeli forces amid hostilities have displaced 90 percent of Gaza’s residents since October 2023, often multiple times, exposing them to harm and depriving them of the essentials to survive.”
He emphasized that in August alone Israel has issued 12 evacuations orders, once every two days on average, forcing 250,000 to be displaced again.
“Just yesterday, tens of thousands of civilians in four neighborhoods in Deir Al-Balah and Khan Younis were instructed to leave,” Hadi pointed out in his statement, stressing that these evacuation orders also affect the staff of several UN agencies and humanitarian aid workers.
Hadi debunked in his statement Israel’s claims that displacement orders are issued to protect Palestinian civilians.
“If evacuation orders are meant to protect civilians, the fact is that they are leading to the exact opposite. They are forcing families to flee again, often under fire and with the few belongings they can carry with them, into an ever-shrinking area that is overcrowded, polluted, with limited services and – like the rest of Gaza – unsafe,” he wrote.
“People are being deprived of access to services essential for their survival, including medical facilities, shelters, water wells and humanitarian supplies,” he added.
Hadi revealed that the water supply in Deir al-Balah has been reduced by at least 70 percent taken the shutdown of pumps and desalination plants in the evacuation areas.
He also stated that there is an acute scarcity of chlorine to disinfect water and an expected one-month supply of reserves, which risks the spread of disease, skin infections, hepatitis A and polio.
“Civilians are exhausted and terrified, running from one destroyed place to another, with no end in sight,” the humanitarian coordinator said.
The OCHA officer warned that this cannot continue.
“International humanitarian law demands that the parties protect civilians and meet their essential needs. The way forward is as clear as it is urgent; protect civilians, release the hostages, facilitate humanitarian access, agree on a ceasefire,” Hadi ended.
The latest statement by OCHA comes few days after The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) reported that Israel has shrunk the so-called ‘humanitarian zone’ in the besieged Gaza Strip to only 11 percent of the enclave causing chaos and fear amongst displaced Palestinians.
The UN announced in August that 84 percent of the population in Gaza is under evacuation orders.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned last month against the repeated Israeli evacuation orders saying they “will only fuel mass suffering for Palestinian families.”
Ongoing genocide
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 40,223 Palestinians have been killed, and 92,981 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
