Arya News - Humanitarian situation in Gaza is ‘desperate’, UN official says, as Israeli violations of ‘ceasefire’ intensify.
Israel issued displacement orders for several areas in Gaza before it bombed the Palestinian territory, killing at least two people, medical sources have said.
The strikes on Thursday are the latest in a deadly escalation by the Israeli military despite the United States-brokered “ceasefire” that came into effect last year.
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list of 3 items list 1 of 3 Arab and Muslim countries condemn Israeli storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque list 2 of 3 How the Houthi Red Sea blockade will impact the world list 3 of 3 Two Palestinians killed as Israel intensifies strikes on Gaza City end of list Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili said the Israeli military heavily bombarded Gaza after issuing evacuation threats for people in four different areas.
“What is particularly alarming is that these warnings have been followed by attacks on the very areas where people have been told to flee,” al-Khalili said. He added that a strike on Gaza City sparked a huge fire that Civil Defence crews are still trying to put out.
Israeli air strikes destroyed homes in the Bureij and Jabalia refugee camps, as well as in the Zeitoun and Tal al-Hawa neighbourhoods of Gaza City.
A separate Israeli strike, which hit a building in the Zeitoun neighbourhood southeast of Gaza City, injured several people, a source at the al-Ahli Hospital told Al Jazeera.
“For families here, an evacuation order means much more than simply moving from one place to another; it means abandoning whatever shelter they have managed to find – often at night and in panic – with many people forced into the streets because they simply have nowhere else to go,” al-Khalili said.
The Israeli attacks come as the US plan for Gaza, which includes the deployment of an international security force and the constriction of the territory, stalls.
Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Badr Abdelatty urged US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday to accelerate the deployment of the International Stabilization Force (ISF) in Gaza in a meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN foreign ministers summit in Manila.
A statement from Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Abdelatty had stressed the need to promptly launch the committee tasked with administering Gaza to help contain tensions and restore regional stability.
Egypt’s calls coincide with Israeli media reports that 30 Moroccan officers had visited Gaza in preparation for deploying forces as part of the ISF.
Morocco announced this month, that it would send security personnel and establish a field hospital in Gaza.
Humanitarian crisis continues
Despite the ceasefire, the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains challenging.
A new analysis from UN agencies has found that an estimated 1.4 million people, 67 percent of Gaza’s population, are still experiencing “crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity”, down slightly from 1.6 million at the end of last year.
Ross Smith, the UN World Food Programme’s director of emergency preparedness and response, told Al Jazeera that “things are not fine in Gaza”.
“It is still a critical, desperate humanitarian situation,” Smith said.
“So we need continued attention to the needs of people inside Gaza, we need continued support of humanitarian access to reach the people where they are in Gaza, and we need to continue to fund those humanitarian operations. All three of those things are critical to support people”, he said.
The British Foreign Office demanded that Israel ends restrictions on humanitarian support for people in Gaza.
“Gaza continues to face crisis levels of food insecurity. Averting famine cannot be the benchmark for success,” said a statement by the newly formed government of Prime Minister Andy Burnham .
The Foreign Office also said that Israeli aid restrictions are “driving disease, water scarcity and decimating health services”.