The Israeli military has appealed to people in the al-Bureij refugee camp in the center of the Gaza Strip to flee. People should go to shelters in Deir al-Balah, about six kilometers further south, an army spokesman announced today in Arabic on the short message service X (Twitter). The request also applies to people from other districts in the north and central coast. The army did not give a deadline for this.
Israel recently announced that it would expand the ground offensive to other areas of the Gaza Strip. The army spokesman today announced a four-hour humanitarian tactical pause in fighting in the Rafah district, in the south of the Gaza Strip. This should make it easier for people to get supplies.
For weeks, Israel has been calling on the civilian population in the north of the Gaza Strip to move south of the isolated coastal strip for their own safety. People there live in very small spaces. About 1.9 of the approximately 2.2 million residents of the narrow coastal zone have had to abandon their homes and apartments due to the fighting. Israel called on them to go to “safe zones” that the Israeli military marked on maps.
According to the United Nations, there are no such zones. A safe zone must at least offer places to stay, protection, sanitation facilities, and sufficient food and drinking water. This is not the case anywhere.