In light of Israel’s bombing assault, the UN issued a warning on Tuesday, stating that it was difficult to establish so-called safe zones inside the Gaza Strip for civilians to escape to.
Although Israel’s army had previously only dropped leaflets on parts of the south advising Palestinian inhabitants to evacuate, the army has now expanded its attack beyond the territory’s northern borders.
“The so-called safe zones… are not scientific, they are not rational, they are not possible, and I think the authorities are aware of this,” James Elder, spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF, told reporters in Geneva via video-link from Cairo.
His comments came as Israeli troops battled Hamas militants in the southern Gaza Strip after expanding their offensive deeper into the besieged area.
Following the terrorist group’s October 7 attacks, which claimed 1,200 lives, most of them civilians, and resulted in the kidnapping of about 240 hostages, Israeli authorities declared that they were at war with Hamas.
Israel has pledged to destroy Hamas and secure the release of all captives held in Gaza as payback for the bloodiest attack in its history. Approximately 15,900 Palestinians have died in the Gaza War, with women and children accounting for almost 70% of the casualties, according to the health ministry operated by Hamas.
International relief organizations have issued a warning that as Israel’s offensive continues deeper into Gaza, inhabitants in the heavily populated area are running out of options to escape.
Elder insisted that the safe zones declared by Israel “cannot be safe nor humanitarian when unilaterally declared”.The pretence that there is somewhere safe for people to flee to is “callous”, he said.
He stressed that in a proper safe zone, “you can guarantee the conditions of food, water, medicine and shelter”.
Elder, who spent the past week or so in Gaza, stressed that none of that is assured in the areas designated as safe zones.
“These are entirely, entirely absent. You cannot overstate this. These are tiny patches of barren land, or they are street corners, they are sidewalks,” he said.“There is no water, no facilities, no shelter from the cold and the rain (and) there’s no sanitation.”
Elder pointed out that in the overcrowded shelters that most of the displaced in Gaza have flocked to there had been around one toilet for every 400 people.
“Now remove those people and put them in… the so called safe places. It’s tens of thousands of people without a single toilet — not one — no clean water, nothing to drink,” he said.
“Without water, without sanitation, without shelter the so called safe zones risks becoming zones of disease.”
