In the latest phase of the American-Israeli genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip, Israeli officials ordered the evacuation of parts of the city of Deir al-Balah, cramming Gaza’s displaced and starving population into an ever smaller portion of the area.
The population of Gaza, which numbered over two million before the genocide began, is now crammed into an area of just 41 square kilometers, or 11 percent of the total area of Gaza. The remaining 89 percent is under evacuation orders from the Israel Defense Forces.
The United Nations warned: “The region lacks vital infrastructure and basic services, and assistance delivery is limited due to access and security challenges. Severe overpopulation, with a population density of 30,000 to 34,000 people per square kilometre, has exacerbated severe shortages of essential resources such as water, sanitation and hygiene items, health services, protection and shelter.”
In the wake of the latest ethnic cleansing operation announced over the weekend, the United Nations announced that it would suspend its food distribution efforts for a second time after UN staff were forcibly expelled from the city of Rafah during previous military operations.
“Where are we going now? … The space for manoeuvre is more limited than ever,” a UN official told Reuters on Monday. “As of this morning, we are no longer operating in Gaza” to deliver food and medical aid because “we are not in a position to deliver today under the prevailing conditions.”
Gilles Michaud, UN Under-Secretary-General for Security and Order, added: “Mass evacuation orders are the latest in a long list of intolerable threats to UN and humanitarian personnel.” He said Israeli officials had “given only hours’ notice to evacuate more than 200 UN staff from their offices and residences in Deir el-Balah, a key humanitarian hub.”
Louise Wateridge, UNRWA’s senior communications officer, told Al Jazeera: “It’s a real struggle to give people here what they need because we don’t have enough aid. There aren’t enough supplies coming in; we don’t have enough access to provide for people.”
She added: “So many people are dying in Gaza from diseases that can be treated. People can be saved, but we don’t have the means to give them that. We don’t have the means to do our best.”
Between August 23 and 26, 170 Palestinians were killed and 390 injured in continuous bombardments and ground offensives across the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry. Official statistics show that 40,435 Palestinians have been killed and 93,534 injured since October last year. However, this figure does not include the 10,000 people who are believed to have been killed and buried under the rubble.
According to official figures, 17,000 children are among the fatalities. This means that 2.6 percent of all children in the Gaza Strip have been killed. Since October 7, an average of 53 children have been killed per day.
If one includes the victims of the Israeli-intentioned famine and the spread of disease, the actual death toll could be 186,000 or more, according to an estimate published in lancet medical journal.
The recent ethnic cleansing in Deir al-Balah represents further displacement for Palestinians seeking refuge there.
Reuters interviewed a woman who said she and her children had been displaced 11 times. “I left half of my children with my furniture and am now with my little ones and my daughter. Only God can help us… I have no money for transportation. I will walk to Area 17, where my family lives. I took my children with me and three stayed behind. No idea where to go.”
Hundreds of thousands of people had sought refuge near Al-Aqsa Hospital, the main medical facility still in operation in central Gaza, and are now being displaced again.
The hospital is in an area covered by the latest evacuation order, forcing people seeking shelter there to flee. “Our fate is death,” one woman who fled the hospital told the Associated Press. “We have nowhere to go. There is no safe place.”
Doctors Without Borders said in a statement that a bomb attack near the hospital was forcing the organization to consider suspending medical care there. “For this reason, MSF is considering suspending wound care for the time being while we try to maintain life-saving treatment,” the aid organization said.
Israel intensified its shelling of Deir el-Balah on Tuesday. At least 40 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip.
“An F-16 missile fell on the area and destroyed the whole place – we cannot get the victims out of here. There are still many people here, the house was full,” one resident told Al Jazeera.
Another resident added: “We are looking for a safe place, and there is really no safe place in the entire Gaza Strip.”
Al Jazeera journalist Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah, added: “Israeli evacuation orders are leaving families desperate for a place to sleep. Soon they will face another challenge: water supplies. With 70 percent of Gaza’s desalination plants and water wells located in evacuation areas, they are cut off from their main sources. Some Palestinians are even considering returning, even at the risk of being killed.”
According to the World Food Programme, 96 percent of the Gaza Strip’s population is suffering from acute food shortages and nine out of ten people have gone 24 hours or more without food.
At least 50,000 children in Gaza require treatment for acute malnutrition and more than 96 percent of infants between the ages of 6 and 23 months cannot meet their basic nutritional needs.
Infectious diseases are rampant amid Israel’s ongoing war on health facilities. In a statement, Human Rights Watch warned that Israel’s measures are leading to an outbreak of polio.
“If the Israeli government continues to block urgently needed aid and destroy water and waste management infrastructure, it will facilitate the spread of a disease that has been nearly eradicated worldwide,” said Julia Bleckner, a spokeswoman for the organization. “Israel’s partners should urge the government to immediately lift the blockade and ensure unhindered humanitarian access in Gaza to enable the timely distribution of vaccines to contain the polio outbreak,” she added.
