UN says 86 percent of Gaza is now under Israeli evacuation orders | Israel-Palestine conflict news

The United Nations says 86 percent of the besieged Gaza Strip is now under Israeli evacuation orders, while 33 more Palestinians are killed in another day of attacks and displacement.

Thousands of Palestinians fled the Bureij and Nuseirat refugee camps in central Gaza on Monday after the Israeli army issued new evacuation orders.

“We were displaced from the north. They told us: ‘We leave for central Gaza, then Rafah.’ We went to Rafah and then returned to Nuseirat. We got stuck. We then received instructions to move further south, towards al-Mawasi,” Mohammed Naserallah, a displaced Palestinian, told Al Jazeera.

“Our life is in pieces. We have nothing, no one but God.”

Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said 86 percent of the besieged enclave is under evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military.

Kahder Baroud, a blind Palestinian who wears black sunglasses, said he received a call from the Israeli army to leave his home in Nuseirat on Sunday.

“We are already struggling with our situation because my daughters and sons are also blind. (…) We live in fear, in frightening circumstances. We left home today [Monday]but we don’t know where we can go now,” he said.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah, also in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said recurring mass deployments have become the norm among the Israeli military.

“The majority of the displaced population is flowing into the city of Deir el-Balah, which is already full of displaced families and does not have enough space or resources to accommodate the people,” he said.

Additionally, schools that have been turned into shelters for displaced people have been targeted by attacks.

“The attacks on schools over the past two days have destroyed any remaining sense of security for people staying in evacuation centers and pushed people into further forced internal displacement. There is literally no safe place in Gaza,” he said.

Meanwhile, at least three people were killed and others were injured when the Israeli army again shelled al-Mawasi, an area in southern Gaza previously declared a “safe zone” by Israel.

Authorities in Gaza said 33 Palestinians were killed across the enclave on Monday, while total deaths since October were reported at 39,363, with more than 90,000 injured.

An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 and more than 200 were taken prisoner.

‘Polio endemic area’

The relentless Israeli offensive also worsened the health emergency in Gaza, as the Ministry of Health declared it on Monday as a “polio endemic area”.

In a statement on Telegram, the ministry said the situation “represents a threat to the health of residents of Gaza and neighboring countries”.

The World Health Organization (WHO) also confirmed the spread of the life-threatening polio virus by detecting it in sewage samples. The already scarce drinking water reserves in the densely populated Gaza Strip are at risk of being contaminated by the virus.

“This is just the beginning of the wave of disease that the Gaza Strip will face,” said Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir-el Balah.

“Palestinians have been living in makeshift tents, without bathrooms, without any hygiene, without access to water and sanitation. Sewage is everywhere,” she said.

On Friday, the WHO said it would send more than a million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered in the coming weeks to prevent infecting children.

Israel’s military also said it would begin offering the polio vaccine to soldiers in Gaza.

Also on Monday, Israel and Hamas traded blame for the lack of progress in reaching a ceasefire and a hostage release agreement in the Gaza Strip, despite international mediation.

Hamas accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of adding new conditions and demands to a truce proposal supported by the United States.

Netanyahu, however, denied making any changes and said it was Hamas who insisted on numerous changes to the original proposal.