Israel issues new evacuation orders, forcing 250,000 to leave Deir al Balah in Gaza.
Israel has ordered more families to vacate Deir al Balah District in the central part of the Gaza Strip Sunday night warning that its forces aimed to target Hamas and other groups in the area. Israel has recently ordered several evacuations across Gaza the most since the beginning of the 10-month-long war; Palestinians, the United Nations, and relief officials have condemned the removal of safe areas and a significant decrease in humanitarian establishments.
The Deir al Balah municipality points to the fact that up to date, Israel has ordered evacuation of 250,000 persons. In a statement published on X, Israeli forces warned residents in some areas to flee the area and move to the west as the region they live in is ‘deemed a combat area’. At least seven Palestinians were killed by Israeli military strikes on Monday, according to medics.
Two people were shot dead in Deir al Balah, where over a million Gazans had sought refuge, two at a school in the Nuseirat camp and three in Rafah near the Egyptian border.
It is either situated near the area in the red zone of the evacuation zone or has one of its branches there.
Five people were killed in a car in Khan Younis and two at a school in Gaza City in two other Israeli strikes on Saturday, medics said. In the afternoon of the same Monday, a militant attack on a tent on the coast in the area of Gaza City killed six Palestinians and left several others injured as the medics reported to Reuters.
With the new orders, families and patients were evacuated to Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Deir al Balah, the main healthcare facility for the hundreds of thousands of residents and displaced population who had sought refuge in the area from bombardment. Doctors without Borders (MSF) stated in a press release on X on Sunday night that an explosion which occurred 250 meters (820 feet) away from the hospital supported by the MSF caused the panic. The Israeli forces claimed that it eliminated some thirty-five Palestinian gunmen in Khan Younis area and the outskirts of Deir al Balah over the last twenty-four hours in addition to the discovery of a large cache of arms.
In three regions within the Gaza Strip, the armed wings of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed that fighters engaged with Israeli occupying forces in a range of operations employing anti-tank rockets, mortars, and sniper fire.
What he saw at the large shading area of the Gaza hospital was partially burnt, reduced from a large structure that could accommodate 250 patients and staff into a dangerous facility for the 100 patients inside the hospital and the medical teams who remained to treat them, calling on the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza to protect them.
In another statement, it said that the Israeli forces have martyred at least 30 Palestinians and injured 66 more over the last day across the Gaza Strip. Sawsan Abu Afesh said she and her children have been displaced for the eleventh time.
‘I left half of my children behind me near my furniture, and I am now with my little ones and my daughter. Only God can help us…’ I have no money for transport… I will go to area 17 where my family is residing walking… I took my kin and three are left without my knowledge,’ the woman said.
The escalation occurs at a time when there is no clear end of the war in sight and long-standing attempts by mediators such as Qatar, Egypt, and the United States to bridge the Israeli-Hamas divide have not borne fruit.
Neither Hamas nor Israel accepted several concessions offered by mediators in the Cairo negotiations on Sunday, two Egyptian security sources said. A high-ranking US official, on the other hand, said that the talks were constructive in form with the intention of all parties to come up with a final and actionable agreement.
