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Havoc, panic: UNRWA says only 14% of areas in Gaza not under evacuation orders

Palestinian civilians move away from the eastern districts of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip following evacuation orders by the Israeli army on July 22, 2024. (By AFP)

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says only 14 percent of areas in the Gaza Strip are not currently under the Israeli “evacuation orders”.

In a post on his X account, Philippe Lazzarini said the Israeli regime issues evacuation orders forcing people to flee every other day.

These orders have created “havoc” and “panic” among the people of Palestine in Gaza, he added.

Quite often, Gazans are given a few hours to pack whatever they can and start all over again, “mostly on foot or on a crowded donkey cart for those who can afford it.”

“Almost everyone in Gaza has been impacted by these orders. Many were forced to flee on average once a month since the war began nine months ago,” Lazzarini wrote.

A man recently told the UNRWA teams that Israel had forced him to flee twice within 10 hours, he said.

The UN official emphasized that the Palestinian people continue to search for safety as the most precious and the most nonexistent thing.

He added: “This evacuation tactic only brings more misery, fear and suffering for people who have nothing to do with this war.”

“The people of Gaza are not pinballs or chess pieces, they are people,” Lazzarini stated.

Last Tuesday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories announced that the Israeli military had ordered the evacuation of, or designated as “no-go zones” more than 80% of the besieged Gaza Strip.

The latest order, according to the report, was issued last Monday when the Israeli military ordered Palestinians residing in eastern and central Khan Yunis to immediately evacuate westwards.

The order covers about 8.7 square kilometers in the so-called “humanitarian zone” in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis.

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

Tel Aviv has also blocked water, food, and electricity to Gaza, plunging the coastal strip into a humanitarian crisis.

Since the start of the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 39,324 Palestinians and injured over 90,830. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.


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