SAEDNEWS: The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says the Israeli regime’s new evacuation order for the displaced people and residents of Gaza’s Deir el-Balah to move south dealt “another devastating blow” to humanitarian efforts in the war-ravaged territory.
OCHA warned on Monday in a statement that “today’s mass displacement order issued by the Israeli military has dealt yet another devastating blow to the already fragile lifelines keeping people alive across the Gaza Strip.”
On Sunday morning, the Israeli regime’s forces ordered the displaced people and residents of central Gaza to leave immediately due to “imminent operations.”
As a result, entire Palestinian families were forced to gather their belongings as fast as possible and leave the area.
According to OCHA’s initial estimates, between 50,000 and 80,000 people were taking refuge in the area when the evacuation order was issued.
OCHA said UN staff were “remaining” in the territory and their coordinates had been shared with “relevant parties.”
“These locations, as with all civilian sites, must be protected, regardless of displacement orders,” OCHA said.
The agency warned that any damage to aid warehouses, health clinics, and water infrastructure will result in the death of civilians who are still in the area.
Since the Israeli regime began its campaign of genocide on October 7, 2023, nearly all of Gaza’s population, which is also facing famine, has been displaced at least once by repeated Israeli evacuation orders.
The latest order means that 87.8 percent of Gaza’s area is now under displacement orders or within Israeli militarized zones, OCHA said.
That leaves “2.1 million civilians squeezed into a fragmented 12 per cent of the Strip, where essential services have collapsed,” said the UN agency.
“[The order] will limit the ability of the UN and our partners to move safely and effectively within Gaza, choking humanitarian access when it is needed most,” it added.
Israel on Sunday also withdrew the residency permit of Jonathan Whittall, the head of the OCHA office in occupied Palestine.
Whittall has been an outspoken critic of the Israeli regime’s genocidal actions and has condemned the humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
Since Israel began its war against Gaza, it has killed 58,895 Palestinians and wounded 140,980, most of whom are children and women.
