Israel's relentless bombardment from the air, land and sea continues to be reported across much of the Gaza Strip, causing further civilian deaths, injuries, displacement and destruction of civilian infrastructure. The United Nations has expressed grave concern over Israel's latest evacuation order for large parts of Khan Younis, which covers about one-third of the Gaza Strip and affects up to 250,000 civilians.
The latest evacuation order, which deepens the humanitarian catastrophe and further destabilizes humanitarian aid flows, is one of the largest forced mass displacements of people since the escalation of hostilities in Gaza in October last year. Humanitarian sources say the orders were given with very little notice or information to those being told to flee.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that tens of thousands of people have already been displaced from eastern Khan Younis in Gaza following Israel's latest order.
“We have seen a constant flow of people moving out,” OCHA’s Head of Office for the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), Andrea De Domenico, told journalists during a briefing on Wednesday. De Domenico said the UN and humanitarian partner agencies would have to reset their operations again following Monday's evacuation order.
In a statement on Friday, the European Union (EU) also said it was deeply concerned by the Israeli army's order to evacuate civilians from the Khan Younis area.
“Some 250,000 people are impacted by the evacuation orders. These orders also threaten the patients of the European Hospital, one of the few remaining partially functioning hospitals in southern Gaza,” Josep Borrell, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, and Janez Lenarčič, European Commissioner for Crisis Management, said in the joint statement.
According to the UN, injured and sick patients from the European Gaza Hospital, including pregnant women and the elderly, were forced to relocate to other facilities, such as Nasser Hospital. Staff were also trying to rescue medical equipment.
The evacuation of the European Gaza Hospital, a 650-bed health facility, has further reduced the available hospital bed capacity in southern Gaza, where the majority of Gaza's population is currently concentrated.
With the European Gaza Hospital shut down, Nasser Hospital, the last major tertiary hospital in southern Gaza, is at risk of being overwhelmed by mass casualties and wounded patients, warns Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders, MSF).
MSF teams working at Nasser Hospital are seeing acute shortages of medical supplies, exposing people to the risk of losing vital health care, the NGO said on Friday.
“This evacuation decision is certain to worsen overcrowding, and cause severe shortages in the already overwhelmed remaining hospitals, at a time when access to emergency medical care is critical,“ the EU statement said.
The UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Friday that there were 10,000 people in Gaza, including many children, who would only survive if they were allowed to leave the territory.
According to UN estimates, 1.9 million people - more than 90 percent of the population - are now internally displaced in the war-ravaged enclave, including people who have been displaced up to 9 or 10 times.
The United Nations estimates the current population of the Gaza Strip at about 2.1 million, down from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics' original projection of 2.3 million for 2024. While more than 38,000 people have been killed in the hostilities, some 110,000 Palestinians have reportedly crossed into Egypt to leave Gaza.
Earlier estimates put the number of displaced at 1.7 million, but that was before the Israeli military operation in Rafah. Following the Israeli assault on the southernmost town of Rafah since May 6, more than 1.3 million people have been forced to flee, the majority once again in desperate search of shelter and safety.
An estimated 85,000 people have left eastern Gaza City in the north of the enclave in the past week, while the latest data indicate that at least 66,000 more Gazans have been displaced from eastern Khan Younis and Rafah, both in the south, following Israel's latest evacuation orders.
OCHA reports that internally displaced persons (IDPs) have moved to western Khan Younis and Deir Al Balah, which are already overcrowded and lack basic services, critical infrastructure, shelter materials and space to accommodate the new influx of IDPs.
“Forced evacuations are creating a humanitarian crisis within the crisis. They exacerbate an already catastrophic humanitarian situation […]. There are no facilities to accommodate people, and humanitarian partners struggle to meet the immense needs of the newly displaced.”, the high-ranking EU officials said.
The EU reiterated that for evacuations not to amount to prohibited forcible transfers, they must comply with international humanitarian law (IHL) and ensure the safety of Palestinians in transit and adequate accommodation in areas of refuge.
“Israel is likewise responsible for guaranteeing that displaced persons are able to return to their homes, or areas of habitual residence, once hostilities end. Displaced people also need to have access to the necessary services and have their needs met,” the EU statement said.
The humanitarian organization Oxfam International said Thursday that Israel's latest evacuation order, which calls for a quarter of a million people to leave eastern Khan Younis, violates the Geneva Convention and several provisions of International Humanitarian Law, “because it has failed to provide safe passage, or a safe final destination where basic humanitarian needs can be met.”
Oxfam says the so-called ‘humanitarian zone’, where people have been ordered to go, is one of the most densely populated displacement areas in the world, with a dire lack of sufficient food, water, medical services, or shelter.
Ongoing military assaults by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have created an unsafe environment for aid organizations, meaning barely any assistance is reaching those in need. There have also been regular attacks resulting in civilian deaths despite the promise that the area was ‘safe’.
According to Oxfam staff, sheltering in the so-called ‘safe zone’, there had been an increase in shelling in recent days and that people were living in medieval conditions, camping in the streets, with no hygiene products and rapidly-spreading disease.
“Pushing hundreds of thousands more people into what is essentially a death trap, devoid of any facilities, is barbaric and a breach of International Humanitarian Law,“ said Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Middle East Director, in a statement.
“Yet again, we are seeing vast numbers of people being forced to flee under Israeli military orders, with no heed for their safety or dignity.”
The aid agency said the areas Israel had defined as 'humanitarian' and 'safe' were in fact the opposite, leaving families with the horrific choice of staying in an active combat zone or moving to an area that is already desperately overcrowded, dangerous and unfit for human habitation.
Despite the frequency of evacuation orders and the huge numbers of people being told to move, Oxfam said none of the declared safe routes in Gaza are actually safe. Israel's military has also systematically attacked civilians and aid workers, including in these clearly marked 'safe zones' and 'evacuation routes'.
The non-governmental organization (NGO) stressed that Israel has repeatedly failed to comply with international law, which requires it to take all possible measures to ensure satisfactory conditions of shelter, hygiene, health, safety and food, and not to separate family members.
Oxfam International is calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire to allow life-saving aid to reach all those in need, and for the safe release of all hostages and unlawfully detained Palestinians.
“The human cost of the military offensive in Gaza is unacceptable and we call on all parties to push for an immediate and lasting ceasefire, in order to end the bloodshed and suffering,” Khalil said.
In its statement, the EU also reiterated its call for a ceasefire: “A ceasefire is all the more important now, and would make possible a surge of humanitarian assistance to Gaza as well as the release of all hostages.”
The European Union called on Israel to respect and implement the legally binding orders of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of 26 January and 24 May.
Despite its other legal obligations under international law and the interim measures ordered by the ICJ on 26 January, 28 March and 24 May, Israel continues to massively obstruct the delivery of aid to Gaza. Starvation as a weapon of war is a war crime.
Meanwhile, influential world leaders continue to ignore the plight of 2.1 million civilians. Israel's closest allies - including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany - are still providing political and military support for a war against civilians that has been marked by war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other grave violations of IHL committed by Israeli forces and officials.
These include collective punishment of civilians, use of starvation as a method of warfare, denial of humanitarian aid, indiscriminate killing of civilians, deliberate killing of civilians, disproportionate attacks, forcible transfer, torture, enforced disappearances and other atrocity crimes under international humanitarian law.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel found in a recent report that Israeli authorities are responsible for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, among numerous other war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Commission also found that the Israeli authorities were responsible for the war crimes of murder or willful killing, directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, forcible transfer, sexual violence, torture and inhuman or cruel treatment, arbitrary detention and outrages upon personal dignity.
The Commission of Inquiry found that the crimes against humanity of extermination, gender persecution targeting Palestinian men and boys, murder, forcible transfer, and torture and inhuman or cruel treatment were committed.
In May, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, announced that he had requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with the war in Gaza.
Khan said he has reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant bear criminal responsibility for a wide range of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza, as prohibited by the Rome Statute of the ICC.
These alleged crimes include starvation as a method of warfare, wilfully causing great suffering, causing serious injury to body or health, cruel treatment, wilful killing, murder, directing attacks against a civilian population, persecution and other inhumane acts.
Widespread, intense and sustained ground and air operations by Israeli forces have resulted in over 38,000 deaths and over 87,400 injuries, displaced nearly 2 million people, damaged or destroyed the majority of buildings, and devastated resources and infrastructure essential to survival, including throughout the food, health and water systems.
Among the dead are at least 274 aid workers, 197 UN staff, 500 health workers and 152 journalists. More than 10,000 people - including thousands of children - are missing and presumed dead. In total, Israel's air and ground operations in the Gaza Strip since October 7 last year have killed, wounded or left missing more than 135,000 people, ore over 6 percent of Gaza's population.
Up to 70 percent of the deaths are reported to be children and women. It is estimated that at least 3,000 women have been widowed, 10,000 children have been orphaned, 17,000 children have been left unaccompanied or separated, and more than one million people have lost their homes.
Further information
Full text: Joint statement by the High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell and Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič on military action in Khan Younis, Gaza, European Commission, statement, released July 5, 2024
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/STATEMENT_24_3661
Full text: Israel breaches International Humanitarian Law by forcing 250,000 Palestinians in Gaza into 'death trap' without food, water, shelter: Oxfam, Oxfam International, press release, published July 4, 2024
https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/israel-breaches-international-humanitarian-law-forcing-250000-palestinians-gaza