The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has denounced the repeated displacement following an evacuation order by the Israeli military to civilians in northeast Khan Younis.
On Monday, July 22, 2024, that Israel carried out multiple air raids, including in Bani Suheila, al-Qarara and Abasan al-Kabira, along with the intensification of shelling in eastern Khan Younis.
This resulted in the killing of at least 70 Palestinians, including women and children.
Around the same time, the Israeli military issued an evacuation order for areas in eastern Khan Younis, including parts of the area that they had unilaterally designated a “humanitarian zone.”
The OHCHR said in a statement on Tuesday, July 23, 2024, that the evacuation order on Monday gave “no time” for civilians to know from which areas they were required to leave or where they should go.
In the statement, the UN agency said, “Despite the evacuation order, Israeli military operations continued in and around the area unabated.”
It added, “The evacuation order also covered parts of Salah al-Deen Road, which has been one of two main routes vital for the transport and distribution of aid, raising concerns that delivery and provision of desperately needed humanitarian assistance will be further reduced or prevented.”
“Confusing mass evacuation orders issued by a party that is concurrently increasing the intensity of its attacks on the areas from which evacuation is ordered and through which people must move place civilians in more danger and may increase the harm to civilians.”
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
The office stressed that this raised “serious concerns” in regards to Israel’s compliance with its “obligation to take all feasible precautions to avoid, and in any event to minimize, incidental loss of civilian life and injury to civilians.”
Also, the UN human rights office reiterated that there is “no safe in Gaza” amid Israel’s offensive, highlighting the Israeli military’s air strikes and shelling on al-Mawasi, a so-called “humanitarian zone.”
It stated that the area has limited or no infrastructure “to support the masses of civilians who have been already displaced there and where there is little access to shelter” or basic life-saving aid.
Separately, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) disclosed that the Israeli military has placed more than 80 percent of the Gaza Strip “under evacuation orders or designated as a no-go zone.”
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry in Gaza announced that at least 39,090 people have been killed and 90,147 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7.
According to the ministry, 70 percent of the victims are children and women.
It added that ten thousand others remain missing.
WHO Official ‘Extremely Worried’ As Poliovirus Found In Gaza Sewage
Earlier on Tuesday, a top World Health Organization (WHO) official noted that he’s “extremely worried” over possible disease outbreaks in Gaza after poliovirus was detected in sewage.
“There is a high risk of spreading of the circulating vaccine-derived polio virus in Gaza, not only because of the detection but because of the very dire situation with the water sanitation,” Ayadil Saparbekov, WHO’s head of health emergencies in the occupied Palestinian territory, stated.
He added, “It may also spill over internationally at a very high point.”
Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. It mainly affects children under the age of five.
Saparbekov also said the number of people now needing evacuation from Gaza for medical care has risen to 14,000.
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