The UN office says 41% of Gaza has received evacuation orders since December
Smoke from bombing rises in the background as displaced Palestinians flee Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, on January 30, 2024. Source: MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday that the Israeli military had ordered the evacuation of 41% of the Gaza Strip since it began dividing the territory into numbered blocs in December.
OCHA said that since December, 1,158 square kilometers of Gaza, to which 1.38 million people had returned before October 7, had been placed under such orders. He added that this area includes 161 shelter centers housing about 700,750 displaced people.
The Israel Defense Forces said it urged people to leave certain areas of Gaza to avoid fighting in its war against Hamas.
Gaza – Today, Monday, the Israeli occupation forces appealed to the residents of Al-Nassar, Sheikh Radwan, Al-Shati camp, the northern and southern sands, Sabra, Sheikh Ajlin and Tal Al-Hawa, west of Gaza City, to evacuate. “For their safety” to “designated shelters” in the south.
The new guideline covered an area of 12.43 square kilometers, equivalent to 3.4% of the area of Gaza. This area was home to nearly 300,000 Palestinians before October 7, and contained 59 shelters housing about 88,000 internally displaced people, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Some background: As of January 26, there were an estimated 1.7 million internally displaced people in Gaza, OCHA said, citing UNRWA, adding that ongoing fighting and subsequent evacuation orders had forced some families to move away from shelters that had been set up. Register it in it initially.
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