Humanitarian personnel working in the northern part of Gaza were frequently warned by the IDF that exclusively hospitals are regarded as protected sites and all other relief facilities may be targeted.
Evacuation Orders Applied to Aid Sites
In messages as well as discussions with aid workers over the past few days, the IDF clarified that an directive given to “all Gaza residents and inhabitants” to leave Gaza City included “all humanitarian locations [there], except hospitals” and cautioned that military operations would intensify significantly to combat Hamas.
Expanded Offensive and Civilian Flight
On Friday, the Israeli military stated it had expanded activities in Gaza City and targeted “Hamas infrastructure”. Hundreds of thousands of the city’s estimated 1 million residents had already left, but many those forced from their homes deeply affected by the advance said they had no way to escape.
Transportation for the gruelling six- to eight-hour journey to southern Gaza can now cost as much as a significant amount of money.
“Conditions are extremely difficult. Throughout the night, shelling was intense,” said Toufic Abu Mouawad who abandoned a camp housing displaced people with no alternative refuge. “I want to flee with the boys, the girls, the children. These are the circumstances that we are living in. It is a very tragic situation.”
Relief Area Preparations and Northern Destruction
Israeli officials stated they were establishing a “humanitarian zone” in the densely populated, less developed al-Mawasi coastal area in the south by constructing additional relief centers nearby, supplying electricity to desalination plants, providing some water and allowing in additional humanitarian supplies.
The majority of Gaza’s north has been emptied of civilians and in ruins. Should military forces occupy Gaza City, the entire 2.1 million population of the war-torn region will be compressed into a small enclave in the south. Currently, all border crossings where goods and people can enter Gaza are in the southern zone, with the northern crossing that previously operated in the north closed recently.
Much of the north lies in ruins after 23 months of conflict and a operation of systematic destruction by military units that has intensified in recent months. Very little of Gaza City is expected to escape the latest military campaign.
“Residents may wish to return though there is little left. It is very difficult to imagine how it could work,” commented one senior aid official operating in the region. “There is an emotional attachment but there is a real question mark about daily survival.”
Aid Distribution and Operational Challenges
Military authorities has constructed additional aid distribution hubs near Gaza’s southern border with the neighboring country, which will be used by the debated GHF organization, a little-known internationally supported private organisation that started work in recent months. This foundation manages five such sites where food boxes distributed on a first come first served basis, but three are thought to have been shut.
Via official communication, the organization stated that multiple shipments of food were delivered recently at current locations in the far south of Gaza, one in the ruins of Rafah and Khan Younis. Additional centers are near the border with Egypt.
The primary crossing from Israel for northern access remains closed for days. Humanitarian shipments from the south face massive logistic difficulties and are often refused permission by the Israeli military. Recently, experts confirmed famine conditions in the city by international authorities.
Israeli forces has said it is expanding the Kissufim access point to enable increased relief to reach the official safe area in al-Mawasi. This too will benefit the south of Gaza only, aid workers confirmed.
All aid into Gaza was halted by authorities for several months, and limited quantities were allowed to enter until recent weeks. Hundreds of shipments are currently delivering food and other essentials to the region daily but such quantities were only a fraction of what was needed, and tight restrictions persist, experts said.
“It is better no doubt compared to earlier months though not sufficiently to make a significant impact in any major way on the famine, on child mortality or in terms of the daily existence of the average Gazan,” said Katy Crosby, Mercy Corps senior director of policy and advocacy.
Many of trucks are private ventures and deliver products like non-essential goods that lack nutritional value but costly.
Political Motivations and Long-Term Consequences
Many Israeli observers and experts believe the underlying reasons for the new offensive into the city are political: to keep Israel in a state of war and avoid imminent polls in which the current government could be unseated – and to ensure that north Gaza becomes unlivable, which aligns with the interests of the Israeli prime minister’s far right allies.
It could also encourage Palestinians to emigrate from the territory.
The Israeli coordination body, the administrative agency that oversees entry into Gaza, on Wednesday issued advice to individuals in the region who sought to depart, while Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s political figure, described Gaza as a “real-estate bonanza”, according to local news outlets last week.
