Juan Cole
Informed Comment / August 23, 2024
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Norwegian Refugee Council, an aid NGO active in Palestine, reports that new Israeli decrees have forced thousands in Gaza’s Deir al-Balah to flee once more, and have disrupted the Strip’s last aid hub. The former “safe zone” is now under concerted attack by Israeli forces. It and numerous other aid agencies again are calling for an immediate ceasefire, in the light of two International Court of Justice decisions against Israel. They point out that “Civilians who are unable or unwilling to leave their homes remain protected under international humanitarian law.”
The organization said that new expulsion directives issued by Israeli authorities have compelled another large-scale movement of families and aid workers from regions in Deir al-Balah -— one of the few remaining zones in the occupied Gaza Strip that still has vital infrastructure and storage facilities for relief supplies.
NRC explains that Rafah in the South functioned as the central point for Gaza’s overburdened relief activities until early May, when Israeli troops broadened their land operations in the area. Relief organizations had to relocate their efforts to Deir al-Balah in the middle of the Strip. With northern Gaza obliterated and southern Gaza mostly unreachable, civilians, aid personnel, and essential humanitarian activities now have no remaining refuge.
They point out that the United Nations stated that multiple directives issued by Israeli forces in Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah between 8 and 17 August affected 17 healthcare facilities, including five primary health centers and nine medical service points, disrupting essential health services.
NRC warns that disruptions will also jeopardize the ability to administer critically necessary polio vaccines once they arrive in Gaza. Jeremy Stoner, Save the Children Regional Director for the Middle East, is quoted as saying, “Even if Israeli authorities let polio vaccines in, with the biggest responders in Gaza constantly pin-balled from one place to the next, how can we deliver an effective campaign and reach the children in dire need of that protection? If you want to understand the access situation, this is it – not the trickle of trucks exceptionally allowed to enter.”
Thousands of newborns and young children have never been vaccinated for polio, and NRC is saying that the expulsion of Palestinians en masse from Deir al-Balah will make it almost impossible to give all those shots.
The Norwegian NGO says that numerous Palestinian families, having already been forcefully relocated innumerable times since October, are on the move once more, including crucial aid workers essential for delivering the limited humanitarian assistance that remains feasible.
I should underline this statement. NRC is saying that when the Israeli commanders keep pushing thousands of families from one place to another, they are also displacing the humanitarian volunteers who are trying to provide them food, water, medicine and other essentials that are in short supply. They note that at least 24 non-governmental organizations have reported disruptions due to these directives in the past week, resulting in the forced relocation of staff, obstructed operations, and the abandonment of at least one location sheltering civilians under assault. Warehouses storing supplies are situated within the areas subjected to these orders, making them inaccessible.
Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, is quoted as saying, “Palestinians in Gaza have been relentlessly uprooted, forced from one so-called ‘safe’ area to the next, enduring unimaginable hardship and loss. Among them are brave humanitarian workers who risk their lives every day to save others. Our ability to provide meaningful aid in any part of Gaza does not meet our ambitions, let alone the overwhelming needs. Deir al-Balah, once declared a humanitarian zone, is now under attack with bombardment at our doorstep.”
The Norwegian aid organization says that so-called “evacuation” decrees issued by Israeli authorities on 13, 15, 16, and 21 August continue to impede humanitarian operations, affecting various agencies including Save the Children, Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), MSF, Solidarités International, Medical Aid for Palestinians, Oxfam, Humanity & Inclusion, Action Against Hunger, Islamic Relief, Project HOPE, DanChurchAid and Norwegian Church Aid and their partners, as well as Palestinian partners of ActionAid, War Child, Danish Refugee Council, Médicos del Mundo, Middle East Children’s Alliance, and WeWorld.
Lena, a Mercy Corps staff member in Gaza, complained bitterly: “The situation has become incredibly dangerous. There’s constant fighting, and the sounds of shelling and explosions are clearly audible. Skin diseases are spreading rapidly. We’re all becoming paranoid that we’ll get infected. The physical toll is real. I’ve been having severe stomach pains, likely from the contaminated water we’re forced to drink. I don’t know how much longer we can survive like this.”
NRC reports that an ANERA (American Near East Refugee Aid) shelter has come under bombardment, while the NRC waited over 15 days for Israeli authorities to respond to a request to avoid fighting in an area where they intend to relocate staff following Israel’s latest expulsion decree.
They say communities are isolated from crucial aid as suppliers who deliver essential items like water face difficulties reaching locations near the areas where people have been ordered to evacuate. NRC says that humanitarian workers must be permitted to deliver aid based on necessity rather than the designation of safe areas by a belligerent in the conflict.
That principle seems sensible. You provide aid where and when it is needed, not on the run because people are being harried from one tent city to another amid the rubble.
These are the signatories of the statement:
Save the Children
War Child
ActionAid
DanChurchAid
Solidarités International
Islamic Relief
Middle East Children’s Alliance
Danish Refugee Council
WeWorld
Humanity & Inclusion/ Handicap International (HI)
Norwegian People’s Aid
The Palestinian Association for Empowerment and Local Development – REFORM
Agricultural Development Association – PARC
Anera
Médicos del Mundo
Médecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors Without Borders (MSF)
Medical Aid for Palestinians
Norwegian Church Aid
Action Against Hunger
ChildFund Alliance
Global Communities
Mercy Corps
Oxfam
CARE International
Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
Project HOPE
Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment; he is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan and the author of, among others, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
