New mass exodus hits central Gaza as Hamas says Israel stalls on ceasefire
CAIRO/DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Thousands of Palestinians fled a community in the central Gaza Strip on Monday in the face of new Israeli evacuation orders, worsening the humanitarian plight in an area already inundated with displaced people fleeing an assault in the south.
Islamist group Hamas accused Israel of blocking a ceasefire, saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government had inserted new conditions into a longstanding truce proposal at the lastest talks, conducted through international mediators.
Israeli forces, which have now captured nearly the entire Gaza Strip in nearly 10 months of war, have spent the last several weeks launching major operations in areas where they had previously claimed to have uprooted Hamas fighters.
Hundreds of thousands of people have converged on Deir al-Balah, a small city in the centre of the enclave that is the only major area yet to be stormed, many forced there by fighting in the ruins of Khan Younis further south since last week.
In its latest assault, Israel ordered residents on Sunday to flee Al-Bureij, just northeast of Deir.
“What is left? Deir? Deir is full of people. Everyone is in Deir. All of Gaza. Where should people go?” Aya Mansour told Reuters in Deir after fleeing from Bureij.
The Israeli military said fighter jets hit 35 targets across the Gaza Strip over the past day as troops battled fighters in Khan Younis and Rafah, close to the border with Egypt. The armed wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said fierce gun battles have been ongoing in those two areas as well as in the suburb of Tel Al-Hawa in Gaza City further north.
Palestinian medical officials said at least eight people were killed in an Israeli air strike earlier in Khan Younis.
In the latest sign of a worsening public health emergency, the Gaza Health Ministry declared a polio epidemic, following the detection of the virus in sewage samples.
On Sunday, the military issued new evacuation orders to some districts in Bureij, forcing thousands to leave before the army blew up several houses.
Some families used donkey carts and rickshaws to carry whatever belongings remained. Many walked for several km on foot to reach Deir or al-Zawayda town to the west.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the United Nations relief agency for Palestinians, said only 14% of the Gaza Strip had not been placed under evacuation orders by the Israeli military. People have been forced to evacuate repeatedly, often with only a few hours notice.
