UN says many Gazans find it ‘simply impossible’ to evacuate Gaza City despite Israeli order

While Israel has issued an evacuation order covering the entirety of Gaza City, where roughly one million Palestinians were at one point sheltering, many of those still there have found leaving “simply impossible,” UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric says.

“Transportation can cost over $1,000; the coastal road that people would take is barely passable, and displacement sites in the south are beyond overcrowded, as we have been describing,” Dujarric says during a press briefing, citing accounts from UN humanitarian officials on the ground.

“Most people have already been displaced countless times. They are exhausted, they are out of money, and they are hungry,” he says.

Still, roughly 9,400 people managed to leave northern Gaza for the south, bringing the number since mid-August to nearly 62,000 displaced in total, says the UN spokesperson.

“Throughout Gaza, people are living out in the open, in makeshift shelters patched together from worn tarpaulins. A fresh supply of tents has only just begun to trickle into Gaza, after months of being blocked by the Israeli authorities,” he says.

UN satellites spotted roughly 1,500 people living in tents along the Gaza shore that are at high risk of being swept up by the high tides on the already-crammed coastline.

Despite the Gaza City evacuation order, many will remain in the northern area of the Strip, the UN estimates.

“Regardless of displacement orders or the labelling of some areas by the Israeli authorities as either ‘humanitarian’ or ‘dangerous,’ Dujarric says. “Safety is not guaranteed anywhere across the Gaza Strip. OCHA reminds us that civilians must be protected, wherever they are.”

The UN spokesperson says Israeli restrictions, particularly the new registration process for NGOs looking to operate in Gaza, have led to many delays in collecting and transporting aid from the southern Gaza border.

Turning to the West Bank, the UN spokesperson notes that Israel’s security crackdown in the West Bank following a deadly terror shooting in Jerusalem yesterday led hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to be trapped for hours at newly established checkpoints.

Several areas were cut off as a result of the checkpoints, including the Biddu enclave in the central West Bank, which is home to some 40,000 Palestinians and which was completely sealed off, Dujarric says.