IDF 'cuts Gaza up into land parcels' as evacuation plan blasted by UN
The Israeli defence force has cut Gaza into "parcels" as a bizarre evacuation plan was blasted by the United Nations.
After US calls to protect civilians, the Israeli military released an online map - but the move appears to have done more to confuse the matter than help. It divides the Gaza Strip into hundreds of numbered, haphazardly drawn parcels, sometimes across roads or blocks.
People living there are asked to learn the number of their location in case of an eventual evacuation. The UN office, which coordinates humanitarian issues in the Palestinian territory, said in its daily report: “The publication does not specify where people should evacuate to. It is unclear how those residing in Gaza would access the map without electricity and amid recurrent telecommunications cuts.”
An Israeli tank moves near the Israel-Gaza border (Ilia Yefimovich/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)Israel pounded targets in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, intensifying a renewed offensive that followed a weeklong truce with Hamas and giving rise to renewed concerns about civilian casualties. At least 200 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting resumed Friday morning, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
The death toll comes despite the US urging Israel to do everything possible to protect civilians. After meetings with Arab foreign ministers in Dubai, Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, said: “This is going to be very important going forward. It’s something we’re going to be looking at very closely.”
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Many of the attacks by Israel were focused on the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza, where the military said it had struck more than 50 Hamas targets with airstrikes, tank fire and its navy. The military dropped leaflets the day before warning residents to leave but, as of late Friday, there had been no reports of large numbers of people leaving, according to the United Nations.
Palestinians wounded in Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip are brought to a hospital in Khan Younis, (AP)Emad Hajar, who fled with his wife and three children from Beit Lahia a month ago to seek refuge in Khan Younis said: “There is no place to go. They expelled us from the north, and now they are pushing us to leave the south."
Israel’s military said it also carried out strikes in the north and hit more than 400 targets in all across the Gaza Strip. Some two million people are crammed into the territory’s south, where Israel urged people to relocate at the war’s start and has vowed to extend its ground assault. Unable to go into north Gaza or neighboring Egypt, their only escape is to move around within the 220-square-kilometer (85-square-mile) area.
Egypt has expressed concerns about the renewed offensive which it says could cause Palestinians to try and cross into its territory. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said yesterday the forced transfer of Palestinians “is a red line.”
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