Humanitarian Crisis Deepens as Thousands Are Forced to Flee Northern Gaza
GAZA CITY: In a somber procession, thousands of Palestinian civilians evacuated the north of Gaza on Wednesday to escape Israeli air strikes and artillery bombardments. Israel announced a four-hour “window of opportunity,” urging residents to leave the encircled north to avoid being trapped in the heavily bombarded area.
Gaza City is now surrounded by Israeli forces, with troops advancing into the heart of the city, according to military reports. Hamas claims its fighters have inflicted substantial losses on Israeli troops.
Meanwhile, Hamas accuses the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) of collaborating with Israel in the “forced displacement” of Gaza residents. Salama Maruf, head of Hamas’s media bureau, holds UNRWA and its officials responsible for the humanitarian catastrophe, particularly affecting the Gaza City area and the north.
The UN estimates that 1.5 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents have been displaced since the Hamas raid on Oct 7. The pace of civilians heading south from northern Gaza has intensified with the escalating air strikes and ground invasion.
People, waving white flags, leave battle-scarred areas, while the rising death toll leads to various means of transportation, from donkey-drawn carts to bulldozers, being used to transport the deceased.
Large numbers of displaced individuals are already crammed into schools, hospitals, and other sites in the south. On Tuesday, about 15,000 people left the northern enclave, compared to 5,000 on Monday and 2,000 on Sunday, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Israel has ordered the evacuation of patients from all 13 operational hospitals in northern Gaza, OCHA reported.
“It was so scary,” said Ola Al Ghul, one of the many displaced civilians. “We held our hands up and we kept walking. There were so many of us, we were holding white flags.”
Military analysts caution of weeks of grueling house-to-house fighting ahead in Gaza, with approximately 30 Israeli soldiers killed since the ground invasion began.
The operation is complicated for Israel due to the prisoners taken by Hamas, believed to be held “inside a vast tunnel network.”
The Hamas-run health ministry reports that Israeli military action has killed over 10,500 Palestinians, with 40% of them being children, according to the besieged territory.
No Place to Hide: Central and Southern Gaza Also Under Fire
The central and southern parts of the besieged Palestinian enclave also faced attacks on Wednesday. Eighteen people were killed after an air strike hit houses in a refugee camp in southern Gaza. In Khan Yunis, six people, including a young girl, were killed in an air strike.
Witness Mohammed Abu Daqa described the sudden F-16 air strike on houses, causing the destruction of an entire block. The victims were civilians, including an old woman and an old man, with others still missing under the rubble.
Despite the attacks, thousands of Gazans remain inside the encircled north, including at Gaza City’s Al Shifa hospital.
Tunnel Network Operations: Israel’s Military Endeavors Continue
Chief Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari announced that combat engineers are using explosive devices to destroy a “Hamas tunnel network that stretches for hundreds of kilometers” beneath Gaza. The military reported the destruction of 130 tunnel shafts so far.
“Combat engineers fighting in Gaza are destroying the enemy’s weapons and are locating, exposing, and detonating tunnel shafts,” the military stated.
Israeli tanks are facing heavy resistance from Hamas fighters using tunnels for ambushes, according to sources in the Islamic Jihad group. Israel reports 33 of its soldiers killed.
Calls for Humanitarian Pause and Qatar’s Mediation Efforts
United Nations officials and G7 world powers have intensified appeals for a “humanitarian pause” to alleviate the suffering of Gaza’s civilians. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres emphasized the need to make Israel understand the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people, considering its global public opinion.
The level of death and suffering is described as “hard to fathom” by UN health agency spokesperson Christian Lindmeier in Geneva.
Qatar is mediating negotiations between Israel and Hamas for the release of 10-15 prisoners held in Gaza in exchange for a short ceasefire. The government of Qatar has been actively engaged in diplomacy, negotiating the handover of four prisoners, including two Israelis and two Americans, in recent weeks.
