It was after the ceasefire violation last week that lots of small leaflets descended on southern Gaza. A screenshot of the zone map that the IDF has published. Photo: Oda Eggesbø Ottesen / Screenshot They contained maps drawn by Israel, where the Gaza Strip was divided into hundreds of tiny zones. On another that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has published, groups of these are framed in all the colors of the rainbow. These are the areas Israel wants to clear of civilians, so that they can freely attack what they claim are Hamas positions. But the overview has been met with strong criticism from many quarters. – For people who have been ordered to evacuate, there is no safe place to travel to and very little to live on, says spokesperson for the UN, Stéphane Dujarric, according to Reuters. news has prepared an approximate overview from the IDF map of the south and north. It cannot be used as exact directional information, but shows how large an area the evacuation order applies to. Press the icon in the right corner for a more complete overview: This overview map shows the approximate areas from which Israel has demanded that people evacuate. 80 percent of the people on the run The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza (UNRWA) also reacts to Israel’s survey: – The evacuation order causes people to crowd together on less than a third of the Gaza Strip. – We have said it before and we say it again: no place is safe in Gaza, whether it is in the south, in the south-west, in Rafah or any agreed “safe zone”. More than 80 percent of Gaza’s inhabitants are already on the run. Now many of them are on their way even further south. Photo: MAHMUD HAMS / AFP An overwhelming majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants have already fled their homes. Several of the evacuation zones contain, and are even named after, refugee camps where many of these people live. The map “new for all” Researcher and author Marte Heian-Engdal tells news that the map that divides Gaza into many small zones is “completely new for everyone”. Middle Eastern expert Marte Heian-Engdal. – I don’t think the residents of Gaza quite know where they belong on this map, and it is in any case very unclear what is to be safe and what is to be attacked. – What people experience is that the roof can fall on your head at any moment. The IDF has published several posts on X where they show which way people should flee with green arrows, but these do not show concrete “safe” areas either. But Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee has published a post on X that directs people to these zones: These approximate zones the IDF believes are safe to stay in. In another statement, the IDF writes this: – The people of Gaza are not our enemies. – Because of this, the IDF leads controlled and specific evacuations of citizens to create as much distance as possible between them and the area where the fighting is taking place. New night of hard battles Israel’s closest ally, the United States, says that the offensive in southern Gaza should not have such “massive” civilian consequences as the attack in the north. But both residents and journalists on the ground say that the bomb attacks in the south also hit areas to which Israel has asked people to flee. The Islamic Jihad group, a close ally of Hamas, says its soldiers have been in fierce battles against the IDF north and east of Khan Younis. An explosion seen from Khan Younis late Monday evening. Photo: IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA / Reuters Israeli tanks are said to have also blocked the main road that connects north and south, people who live in the vicinity tell Reuters. The IDF says that the main road out of Khan Younis to the north “consists of a battlefield” and is therefore closed. The Israeli attacks on Gaza in the last 24 hours have been among the most powerful to date, says the UN’s emergency aid office. At least 349 Palestinians have been killed and 750 injured in the same period. The Hamas-controlled health authorities in Gaza say that 43 dead people had been transported to the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Tuesday morning. They did not specify whether these were among or in addition to the existing number. Norwegian People’s Aid: – Pushing into a corner Gry Ballestad is head of development and humanitarian cooperation at Norwegian People’s Aid. – People who have already been forced to flee are now being pushed even further south, where there is now no access to food, shelter or medical help. It is dramatic, she told news. They are now calling for actual safe zones where people can stay while the fighting goes on. Gry Ballestad in Norwegian People’s Aid. Photo: Tom Ingebrigtsen / news – We often talk about Gaza as the most densely populated area in the world. – Now they have pushed this people into a corner where there is no humanitarian aid whatsoever, and they are continuing the attack. She says that the refuge areas that exist, most of them without enough shelter, will become more dangerous to stay in when the winter cold comes. – There are so many civilians who are attacked. One must hope and believe that the world sees and cannot accept this. – It is completely unbelievable that we have reached the point we are at now.
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“Impossible” to establish safe zones in Gaza – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
