The Israeli military has expanded its operations in a part of the central Gaza Strip that had remained relatively unscathed during the war with Hamas, raiding a UN facility and prompting panic among Palestinians who had sought refuge in the area.
In the raid on the UN facility, a World Health Organisation (WHO) building in the city of Deir al-Balah, Israeli forces handcuffed and stripped male staff and family members and held them at gunpoint, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the agency, said in a statement.
Women and children were forcibly evacuated south in the raid, which took place on Monday, he added.
The Israeli military said its forces had come under fire while operating in the area. It did not deny raiding the WHO facility but said that any “suspects” had been treated “in accordance with international law”.
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Israeli troops have swept through much of Gaza, backed by extensive air strikes, during the 21 months of the war. But the city of Deir al-Balah had been left largely untouched, partly because Israeli officials said they believed hostages were being held there.
On Sunday, the Israeli military ordered residents in parts of the city to leave or face life-threatening danger. Some Palestinians thought those warnings suggested that Israel was poised to launch a ground offensive in the city.
The Israeli military launched strikes and ground operations around Deir al-Balah, but it was unclear how far the operations would expand.
Israeli troops had not advanced into the densely populated city centre, but residents were already fleeing.
Deir al-Balah has became an informal refuge for Palestinians fleeing other parts of Gaza, and huge tent camps have sprang up in the city.
In the relative calm, a modicum of normalcy had survived. The city also hosts large warehouses for the United Nations as well as guest houses for the organisation’s staff.
[ Israel sends tanks into Gaza’s Deir Al-Balah, where it believes hostages areOpens in new window ]
Many Palestinians fled to the north of the city, seeking safety in areas that Israeli authorities had not declared potential combat zones. According to the United Nations, tens of thousands of people have been sheltering at dozens of displacement sites in the area.
But there are few places left to flee to in Gaza. More than 85 per cent of the enclave is under direct Israeli military control or subject to Israeli evacuation orders, according to the United Nations.
The rest of Gaza’s nearly two million residents have been mostly hemmed into the shrinking parts that remain.
More than 57,000 people, including thousands of children, have been killed in the Israeli campaign against Hamas in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
For the families of Israeli hostages, the potential attack in the city has also fuelled renewed fears for the lives of their loved ones.
About 50 of the 250 captives seized during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7th, 2023 remain in Gaza, though dozens of those are presumed dead by Israeli authorities.
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum, an advocacy group, has demanded that the Israeli government explain how an attack in central Gaza would avoid putting captives’ lives at risks.
“The people of Israel will not forgive anyone who knowingly endangered the hostages,” the forum said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said on Tuesday that its aid stocks are completely depleted in Gaza, with some of its staff now starving, and the organisation accused Israel of paralysing its work.
The council’s comments echo those made earlier on Tuesday by the head of Unrwa, the Palestinian refugee agency, who said the agency’s staff were fainting on the job from hunger and exhaustion.
The NRC says that for the last 145 days, it has not been able to get hundreds of truckloads of tents, water, sanitation, food and education materials into Gaza.
COGAT, the Israeli military aid co-ordination agency, and Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It has denied accusations that it is preventing aid from reaching Gaza, and has accused Palestinian militant group Hamas of stealing food, which Hamas denies.
“Hundreds of truckloads have been sitting in warehouses or in Egypt or elsewhere, and costing our western European donors a lot of money, but they are blocked from coming in ... That’s why we are so angry. Because our job is to help,” Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the council, said. .
“Israel is not yielding. They just want to paralyse our work,” he added.
The NRC said its supplies of safe drinking water are also running out, due to dwindling supplies of fuel to run desalination plants. The water has reached 100,000 people in central and northern parts of Gaza in recent weeks.
An Israeli official told Reuters there is about a half a million litres of fuel that the UN has been given approval to bring in.
“They’re bringing in fuel and collecting, but they can bring in and they can collect more, and we are having discussions with them,” the official said.
This article originally appeared in the New York Times
