In recent days, Israel has issued several evacuation orders across Gaza, the largest number since the start of the war, angering Palestinians, the United Nations and aid officials over the shrinking humanitarian zones and the absence of safe areas.
Ceasefire talks are continuing in Cairo with little sign of tangible progress on the main issues of contention between the two sides, which include control of two corridors into the Strip once the fighting stops.
migration to the beach
Residents and displaced families in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah in the centre, where most of the population is now concentrated, said they were forced to live in crowded tents on the beach.
Aya (30 years old), a displaced person from Gaza City who now lives with her family in western Deir al-Balah, said, “All that remains is for them to bring ships so that next time when they say to evacuate we can jump on the ships. People are currently on the shore, meaning next to the sea.”
She added to Reuters: “Every day they talk about a ceasefire, and in the end all the talk evaporates and falls like dust. Do the negotiators know that every day more families are dying? Does the world know that every day costs us lives?”
17 killed in Israeli attacks
Palestinian health officials said nine Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on the Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps, two of Gaza’s eight oldest, while five people were killed in another strike in Khan Younis and three others died in a third strike in Rafah.
According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, more than 40,000 Palestinians were killed in the war.
Humanitarian agencies say the crowded enclave has been reduced to rubble, most of its 2.3 million residents have been displaced multiple times and face severe shortages of food and medicine.
UN aid halted
A senior UN official said the organisation’s humanitarian aid operations in the Gaza Strip were halted on Monday after Israel on Sunday issued new evacuation orders for the Deir al-Balah area in the central Gaza Strip, where the UN operations centre is located.
The evacuation order came as the international organization prepares to launch a campaign to vaccinate some 640,000 children against polio.
The World Health Organization said a 10-month-old child was paralyzed by the type 2 virus, the first case of its kind in the Strip.
continue negotiations
As the fighting continued, negotiators in Cairo continued their meetings aimed at stopping the fighting and returning 109 Israeli and foreign hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners.
Despite the optimism of the United States, which supports the talks alongside Egypt and Qatar, Hamas and Israel are exchanging blame for the lack of progress.
One of the main sticking points holding up an agreement is Israel’s insistence on maintaining control over the Philadelphi corridor on the border with Egypt, which Israel says is used as a main route for smuggling weapons into Gaza.
Israel also insists on screening those moving from the southern and central Gaza Strip to the northern areas through the Netzarim Corridor, which bisects the Strip, saying it needs to ensure that armed fighters cannot move north.
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