Israeli evacuation orders cram Palestinians where food is scarce

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Written by Super User

Category: MENA

Published: 24 August 2024

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By JULIA FRANKEL and WAFAA SHURAFA

DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA - Young girls screamed and elbowed each other in a crush of bodies in southern Gaza, trying desperately to reach the front of the food line. Men doled out rice and chicken as fast as they could, platefuls of the nourishment falling to the ground in the tumult.

Nearby, boys waited to fill plastic containers with water, standing for hours among tents packed so tightly they nearly touched.

Hunger and desperation were palpable Friday in the tent camp along the Deir al-Balah beachfront, after a month of successive evacuation orders that have pressed thousands of Palestinians into the area that the Israeli military calls a “humanitarian zone.”

The zone has long been crowded by Palestinians seeking refuge from bombardment, but the situation grows more dire by the day, as waves of evacuees arrive and food and water grow scarce. Over the last month, the Israeli military has issued evacuation orders for southern Gaza at an unprecedented pace.

At least 84% of Gaza now falls within the evacuation zone, according to the U.N., which also estimates that 90% of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents have been displaced over the course of the war.

Thirteen evacuation orders have been issued since July 22, according to an Associated Press count, significantly reducing the size of the humanitarian zone declared by Israel at the start of the war while pushing more Palestinians into it than ever before. The increased crowding of evacuees can be seen in satellite photos.

“The food that reaches us from the charity is sufficient for the people in our camp,” said Muhammad Al-Qayed, who was displaced from Gaza City and now lives along the beach. “Where do the people who were recently displaced get food from? From where do we provide them?”

Another displaced Palestinian, Adham Hijazi, said: “I have started thinking that if there is no food, I will go and drink seawater to endure it. I am talking seriously. I will drink water and salt.”

The military says the evacuations are necessary because Hamas has launched rockets from within the humanitarian zone. In posts on X, the military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, has instructed Palestinians to flee immediately, saying the military will soon operate “with force” against Hamas militants in the area.

Yasser Felfel, originally displaced from northern Gaza, has watched his camp swell with waves of evacuees.

“There were 32 people in my tent. Now there are almost 50 people, people I don’t know,” he said. “A week ago, there was a lot of food left over. We had breakfast, lunch and dinner. Today, because of the number of people who came here, it is barely enough for lunch.”

In August alone, the evacuation orders have been issued roughly every two days and displaced nearly 250,000 people, the U.N. said.

“Many people here have been displaced more than 10 times. They’re exhausted and broke,” said Georgios Petropoulos, the head of the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Gaza.

A pair of satellite photos taken over the last month shows the impact of the orders. The imagery, obtained from PlanetLabs and reviewed by the AP, shows that tent camps along the coast grew more densely packed from July 19 to Aug. 19.

On Aug. 19, tents covered nearly every available sandy patch and were pitched closer to the ocean.

Even Palestinians living in the humanitarian zone Israel declared at the start of the war have been forced to move. On July 22, the military ordered the evacuation of most of the eastern edge of the zone, saying that Hamas had launched rockets at Israel. Then on Aug. 16, the military again shrank the zone, calling on Palestinians living in the center to flee.

The evacuations come as international mediators struggle to bridge differences between Israel and Hamas over a cease-fire agreement that would stop the fighting in Gaza and exchange scores of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

The war began on Oct. 7, when Hamas militants blew past Israel’s border, killing around 1,200 people and taking about 250 others hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has now killed over 40,000 people in Gaza and razed the strip’s buildings and infrastructure.

Water has been another casualty of the evacuations. The U.N. says the water supply in Deir al-Balah has decreased by at least 70% since the recent wave of evacuations began, as pumps and desalination plants are caught within evacuation zones.

The lack of clean water is causing skin diseases and other outbreaks. The U.N.'s main health agency has confirmed Gaza’s first case of polio in a 10-month-old baby in Deir al-Balah who is now paralyzed in the lower left leg.

Meanwhile, aid groups say it is only growing more difficult to offer help. U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Thursday that the U.N. World Food Program lost access to its warehouse in central Deir al-Balah because of a recent evacuation order.

Standing in the water line Friday, Abu Mohammad observed the scarcity around him and prayed it would end soon.

“There is no water, there is no food, there is no money, there is no work, there is nothing,” said Mohammad, who has now been displaced seven times.

“We ask God, not the people, for it to end. We no longer have the capacity. Oh world, we no longer have the capacity.”

Israel recovers bodies of six hostages in overnight operation in Gaza

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Written by Super User

Category: MENA

Published: 20 August 2024

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MATT WATTS AND JOSH SALISBURY

JERUSALEM - The Israeli military says it has recovered the bodies of six hostages in an overnight operation in Gaza.

The military said in a statement that its forces recovered the bodies of six hostages taken by Hamas in the October 7 attack in southern Gaza.

It identified the hostages as Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell, and Haim Perry, without saying when or how they died.

Five of the hostages were over 50 years old when they were captured, and three had family members who were released during a week-long ceasefire in November.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the recovery effort and said "our hearts ache for the terrible loss".

"The State of Israel will continue to make every effort to return all of our hostages - both alive and dead," he said in a statement.

The recovery came as the the United States, Egypt and Qatar are trying to mediate a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas that would see the release of scores of hostages held by the militant group.

Hamas is still believed to be holding around 110 hostages captured in the October 7 attack.

Israeli authorities estimate around a third of them are dead.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is making his ninth visit to the region since the start of the war, said on Monday that Mr Netanyahu has accepted a proposal to bridge gaps in the ceasefire talks, and called on Hamas to do the same - which it has so far not done.

Hamas-led militants burst through Israel's defences on October 7 and rampaged across the south, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage.

More than 100 hostages were released in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel during a week-long ceasefire last year.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many were militants.

Most of Gaza's 40,000 dead are women and children, UN

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Written by Super User

Category: MENA

Published: 19 August 2024

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GENEVA - As the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza passes the dark milestone of 40,000, UN rights chief Volker Türk called on Thursday for an end to the killing “once and for all” and the release of all hostages while negotiators prepared to meet in Qatar to renew efforts to halt the conflict and avert a wider war.

“Most of the dead are women and children. This unimaginable situation is overwhelmingly due to recurring failures by the Israeli Defense Forces to comply with the rules of war,” the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement.

“On average, about 130 people have been killed every day in Gaza over the past 10 months,” Mr. Türk continued, citing estimates based on data from the enclave’s health authorities, before describing the “scale of the Israeli military’s destruction of homes, hospitals, schools and places of worship [as] deeply shocking.”

He noted that his Office had documented serious violations of international humanitarian law by the Israeli military and Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas fighters responsible for the 7 October terror attacks on multiple locations in southern Israel that left some 1,200 dead and more than 250 taken hostage.

Precious respite

Meanwhile in Gaza, a fortunate few in the devastated enclave enjoyed a little respite from the ongoing conflict, at a restored water pumping station in Khan Younis.

“The last time I visited this well was at the end of April, and it was destroyed, surrounded by shrapnel and potential unexploded ordinance,” said Louise Wateridge, spokesperson for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, which led repairs at the facility.

“I saw so many children not only collecting drinking water for their families, but also enjoying cooling off and playing under the water, spilling over from filling the larger tanks…a basic joy that is available to so few here.”

The severe shortage of clean water throughout Gaza since the war began has compounded families’ efforts to stave off disease and malnutrition, highlighting the importance of the reopened facility in the southern city and beyond to tens of thousands of people.

It is the largest drinking water supply to families in Khan Younis and operates for eight hours a day, “pumping over 500 cubic metres of clean drinking water on a daily basis to around 100,000 displaced people,” Ms. Wateridge said in an online video post that showed children and adults filling up jerrycans and other youngsters playing happily under a leaky hose.

“There are so few water sources across the Gaza Strip that many families are forced to travel huge distances in sweltering temperatures,” she explained. “Others are not able to access [clean water] at all, forcing them to survive on dirty water.”

No let-up in bombing

Despite the “relentless” bombing, the UNRWA official noted that in addition to those arriving at the water station in person, tankers were being filled continuously to serve those unable to go there themselves.

As humanitarians welcomed the development, media reports indicated that new evacuation orders had been issued by the Israeli military, impacting Al-Qarara and Al-Sathar in and around Khan Younis.

On Tuesday, communities in Makhta and Beni Suhaila in eastern Khan Younis received orders to move to the so-called “safe zone”. According to the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, the order impacted essential services, including eight water and sanitation facilities, along with two primary healthcare centres.