Israeli evacuation orders leave Palestinians with less than a third of Gaza to live in: UN

The UN on Friday warned that Israel’s latest evacuation orders are leaving Palestinians with shrinking space to live in Gaza, further worsening the humanitarian crisis in the enclave, Anadolu news agency reported.

In a news conference, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that Israel on Friday issued “two new displacement orders covering vast areas in northern and southern Gaza.”

“Several medical facilities and storage sites containing critical supplies are located within newly designated displacement zones,” he added.

Citing the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Dujarric warned of “life-threatening consequences” for those in urgent need of care due to newly designated displacement zones.

“With this latest development, OCHA reports that more than two-thirds of the Gaza Strip is either under active displacement orders or designated as no go zones,” he said, noting that “this leaves Palestinians with less than a third of Gaza’s area to live in, and that remaining space is fragmented.”

Dujarric further reported that it has now been 40 days since Israel imposed a full closure on cargo entry into Gaza.

READ: 400,000 displaced in Gaza since collapse of ceasefire: UN agency

“Today, six out of 10 such attempts were blocked outright,” he said, adding that since the closure by Israel “no one, including our humanitarian partners, have been permitted to bring in supplies, regardless of how critically needed those items may be.”

Warning that “everything is running extremely low,” Dujarric said: “Bakeries have shut down, life-saving medicines have run out, and water production is drastically reduced.”

In the occupied West Bank, Dujarric reported that Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians — including two children — and injured over 130 people in the first week of April.

“OCHA documented demolition of more than 100 structures across the West Bank for lacking Israeli-issued building permits, which are nearly impossible to obtain,” he said, noting that it led to “displacement of more than 120 Palestinians, mostly children, and otherwise affected more than 200 people.”

Tension has been high in the occupied West Bank since the Israeli war on Gaza began, killing nearly 950 Palestinians and injuring over 7,000 others since October 2023, according to Palestinian figures.

In July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s longstanding occupation of Palestinian territories illegal, calling for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

READ: Israel denies 68 per cent of UN aid access attempts into Gaza since 18 March: UN