The U.N. coordinator for humanitarian affairs in the Palestinian territories warned Thursday that “no place in Gaza is safe” due to Israeli bombings since the war with Hamas began on Oct. 7.
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The coordinator, Lynn Hastings, said in a statement that the Israeli army’s “advance warnings” to the population about evacuating the areas it targets “make no difference.”
“No place in Gaza is safe.”
The Israeli army “continues to warn residents of Gaza City that those who stay at home are putting themselves in danger,” Mr. Hastings recalls.
“In some cases, the message (from the Israeli army, editor’s note) encourages people to go to a humanitarian zone in Al-Mawasi,” west of the town of Khan Younes, in the south of the Gaza Strip.
But “the United Nations wants to provide aid where people are in need,” she assured.
The Israeli army, through its Arabic-speaking speakers, has repeatedly ordered residents of Gaza City to leave for “the humanitarian zone in the Al-Mawasi area, where humanitarian assistance will be directed if necessary.”
“For people who can’t evacuate – because they have nowhere to go or can’t move – advanced warnings make no difference,” Hastings stressed.
“When evacuation routes are bombed, when people in both the north and south are caught up in hostilities, when the essentials for survival are missing and when there is no guarantee of return, people do not face impossible choices,” she added.
She recalled that “the conduct of armed conflict, wherever it may take place, is governed by international humanitarian law.” This means that civilians must be protected and provided with the essentials for their survival, wherever they are and whether they decide to move or stay.”
“It also means that the hostages – all hostages – must be released immediately and unconditionally,” she said.
More than 200 people were kidnapped in Israel in a bloody Hamas attack on Israeli territory on October 7th.
That attack killed more than 1,400 people in Israel, according to authorities, and more than 6,500 people were killed in the Gaza Strip in attacks that have since been carried out in retaliation by the Israeli army, according to the territory’s ruling Hamas government.