UN claims Israel ordering Gazans to evacuate to areas that are still under bombardment

The United Nations takes aim at Israel on Tuesday for its months-long block on bringing tents into the Gaza Strip, despite continual displacement orders issued to civilians in the devastated territory.

Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, says shelter items had been banned from entering Gaza for about five months — a period when more than 700,000 people had been displaced or re-displaced.

Israel announced on Sunday that it was renewing the supply of tents and shelter equipment to Gaza, ahead of plans by the military to evacuate the Palestinian civilian population of Gaza City.

“They may have been provided with a tent, and then they are displaced again and they have no possibility of taking the tent with them,” Laerke tells a press briefing in Geneva.

He says the Israelis could classify tents as “dual use” because they considered tent poles to have a potential military purpose.

Laerke says the evacuation order placed over Gaza City on Saturday had not changed the situation on the ground, and tents were still not being allowed into the territory.

Separately, the UN human rights office accused Israel of sending Palestinians to areas where strikes were continuing.

Spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan says “hundreds of thousands” are being told to go south to Al-Mawasi, which he said is still under bombardment.

He says Palestinians in Al-Mawasi had “little or no access to essential services and supplies, including food, water, electricity and tents.”

Israel says it takes measures to avoid harming civilians, whereas Hamas operatives hide among them.