“This amounts to approximately 1.1 million people. The same order applied to all UN staff and those sheltered in UN facilities — including schools, health centres and clinics,” the world body said in a statement…reports Asian Lite News
The Israeli military has informed the UN that it wants approximately 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza, which is about half of the population of the Hamas-controlled enclave, to evacuate to southern Gaza in the next 24 hours, a spokesman for the world body said.
According to Stephane Dujarric the spokesperson for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the military told the UN just before midnight on Thursday that “the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours”, CNN reported.
“This amounts to approximately 1.1 million people. The same order applied to all UN staff and those sheltered in UN facilities — including schools, health centres and clinics,” the world body said in a statement.
“The UN considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences. The UN strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation.”
Slamming the UN’s response to the order, Gilad Erdan, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, said it was just an early warning to the residents of Gaza aimed to “minimise harm to those not involved” in its military operation against Hamas, reports CNN.
“For many years, the UN has turned a blind eye to the arming of Hamas and its use of the civilian population and civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip as a hiding place for its weapons and murder,” he said.
“Now, instead of standing by Israel, whose citizens were slaughtered by Hamas terrorists… it preaches to Israel… It is better for the UN to focus now on returning the hostages, condemning Hamas, and supporting Israel’s right to defend itself,” the envoy added.
This development comes ahead of an emergency meeting called on Friday by the UN Security Council in the wake of the raging conflict that erupted after the Hamas launched its surprise large-scale assault on southern Israel on October 7.
In retaliation, Israel has been bombarding the Gaza Strip with airstrikes.
According to the Israeli military, there have been more that 6,000 airstrikes on the Hamas-controlled enclave in the last six days.
The Jewish nation has amassed more than 300,000 reservists along its southern border with Gaza but it is yet to confirm if it was launching a ground offensive.
Humanitarian Crisis Deepens in Gaza
The humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate as a result of Israeli airstrikes, UN humanitarians have said.
More than 338,000 people are now displaced, an increase of 30 per cent since Wednesday. More than 218,000 displaced people are sheltering in schools run by the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.
More than 2,500 housing units have been destroyed or severely damaged and rendered uninhabitable while nearly 23,000 units have sustained moderate to minor damage, said the office.
At least 88 education facilities have been struck, including 18 UNRWA schools, two of which were used as emergency shelters for the displaced. This means that for the sixth consecutive day, more than 600,000 children have had no access to education at a safe place in Gaza, it said.
Gaza’s sole power plant ran out of fuel and has stopped functioning. Since the start of hostilities on Saturday, seven significant water and sewage facilities serving more than 1 million people were hit by airstrikes and have been severely damaged. Half of the bakeries have less than a week’s supply of wheat flour, while 70 per cent of shops report significantly decreased food stocks, it added.
Humanitarian agencies continue to face major constraints in providing humanitarian assistance. Insecurity is preventing safe access to impacted areas and warehouses, said OCHA.
Despite the challenging conditions, humanitarian workers have provided some assistance, including the distribution of fresh bread to 137,000 displaced people, the delivery of 70,000 litres of fuel to water and sanitation facilities, and the activation of psychosocial support helplines, it said.
UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths on Wednesday allocated $9 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to urgently respond to relief efforts.