Over 250,000 displaced in a month as Israel intensifies Gaza City offensive: UN

As Israel continues with its offensive in Gaza City, the latest figures released by the United Nations suggest that over a quarter of a million people have been displaced from the largest city in the coastal enclave in the last month. The international body noted that tens of thousands more people were forced to flee makeshift homes and shelters daily in the face of the new Israeli offensive.

The figures were released on Thursday, the same day strikes by Israeli artillery, tanks and warplanes hit Gaza City. In light of this, a UN official said “new waves of mass displacement” were underway, after about 60,000 fled the new assault in 72 hours earlier this week.

Meanwhile, Israeli military officials noted that the total number of people following Israeli orders to evacuate Gaza City is much higher. Most of the residents are now heading towards the south in the areas designated by the Israeli authorities as safe zones.

Israel’s operation in Gaza City

It is pertinent to note that the Israeli military official argued that Gaza City was a “ Hamas stronghold” and that as many as 450,000 civilians had left. The military argued that the estimates are based on multiple sources, including drone surveillance, The Guardian reported.

As Israel carries on with its operation, the Jewish nation controls Gaza City’s eastern suburbs and, in recent days, has moved into the Sheikh Radwan and Tel al-Hawa areas, from where they would be positioned to advance on the central and western districts. While all this was happening, swathes of Gaza City, once a busy commercial and cultural hub, have been reduced to uninhabitable ruins. Until weeks ago, more than a million people were living there, many of whom had already been displaced numerous times.

In the midst of all this, on Wednesday, Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister, described Gaza as a “real-estate bonanza.” While speaking at a property development conference in Tel Aviv, Smotrich said, “The demolition, the first stage in [Gaza City’s] renewal, we have already done. Now we just need to build.”

The same day, the Israeli military announced the opening of a second route out of Gaza City – through the middle of the Gaza Strip – for two days to try to encourage the exodus. Apart from this, the Israeli military has been dropping leaflets urging people to flee towards the designated “ humanitarian zone” in the south of the territory. However, the aid agencies say conditions there are dire, with insufficient food, medicine and space, and inadequate shelter.