“This is the first time where return is officially allowed to an evacuated area.”
Israeli authorities are allowing displaced Palestinians to return to specific areas in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah for the first time, according to the United Nations.
“The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is telling us in Gaza that Israeli authorities announced that displaced people could return to specific areas in Deir al-Balah,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a news conference on Thursday.
“This is the first time where return is officially allowed to an evacuated area,” he added.
Dujarric stressed that the evacuation orders that Palestinians have received “numerous times” since the beginning of August have “severely disrupted our humanitarian work and our ability to work.”
Only 11% of Gaza Spared – 16 Israeli Evacuation Orders in August Alone
The spokesman also pointed out the dire water, sanitation, and hygiene conditions at two sites in Rafah which hosts over 1,200 families.
“People there are struggling with drinking water as no trucking is currently available. They report skin diseases being the main morbidity among women and children, with no treatment available when they go to medical points.”
Those residing in the areas near the beach, in al-Mawassi, “have had sea water flooding their tents.”
WFP Operations
Dujarric also said that Tor Wennesland, the Special Coordinator for the UN in the region “continues to monitor the ceasefire and hostage release negotiations and to engage regularly with key national, and international and regional actors.”
Wesseland also held “high level talks” with Israeli security officials regarding the incident involving the World Food Programme (WFP) vehicle that was “directly struck by gunfire” a few meters away from an Israeli checkpoint at the Wadi Gaza bridge on Wednesday evening.
Vehicle ‘Directly Struck’ by Israeli Fire – WFP Temporarily Halts Operations in Gaza
Following the incident, the WFP has temporarily halted the movement of its staff across the besieged enclave.
Over 40,000 Killed
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 40,602 Palestinians have been killed, and 93,855 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
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