UN humanitarian work in Gaza impacted by evacuation order

GAZA STRIP

The United Nations on Monday said humanitarian work in the Gaza Strip has taken a serious blow after Israel ordered a new evacuation in the center of the besieged territory.

It came as the United States announced "progress" in Gaza truce talks underway in Cairo, even after a major but brief cross-border escalation between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon.

On Sunday, the Israeli military ordered people to "evacuate immediately" a part of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, sparking a rapid exodus of civilians and displacing U.N. and NGO workers.

"Our humanitarian colleagues are particularly worried about the order," which "effectively upends a whole lifesaving humanitarian hub that was set up in Deir el-Balah following its evacuation from Rafah back in May," the U.N.'s humanitarian office OCHA said in a statement.

The order affected 15 premises hosting U.N. and NGO aid workers, U.N. warehouses, a water desalination plant, and medical facilities, including the key Al-Aqsa hospital, one of the few still operating in Gaza, it said.

"It severely impacts our ability to deliver essential support and services," the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in the statement.

Speaking to AFP on Sunday from her hospital bed outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir el-Balah, Tamam al-Raei said she did not know where to seek safety.

"I have a war injury. I have broken bones and have had an amputation, and I have been receiving treatment for that," she said.

"Where do we go? Where do I get treatment?" added the woman, surrounded by other war-weary Palestinians being evacuated from the hospital in a frantic bid to stay ahead of feared Israeli bombardment.

A senior official for the U.N. refugee agency UNRWA said, "the space and the ability of the U.N. system, of the humanitarian system to operate in Gaza is becoming increasingly difficult," as the U.N. said it had to halt the movement of aid and workers within Gaza due to the Deir el-Balah evacuation order.

More than 10 months of war between the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel have left large parts of Gaza in ruins, ravaged its healthcare system, and sparked a dire humanitarian crisis and warnings of famine.

The latest developments came as U.N. agencies have planned to conduct mass vaccination after the first polio case in 25 years.

The Israeli military said on Monday it was targeting "terror operatives" in Deir el-Balah and working to dismantle the "remaining terrorist infrastructure" of Hamas.

Regional conflict 

Israel has ordered several evacuations since its military campaign to "eliminate" Hamas, whose Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel triggered the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,435 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths. The U.N. human rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

The Hamas attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to Israeli official figures.

On Monday, Israel's army struck Gaza anew, with witnesses reporting airstrikes and shelling in Gaza City and other parts of the territory.

Medics said an airstrike on a Gaza City house killed at least five people, with two rescuers telling AFP more victims may be buried in the ruins in the Al-Rimal neighborhood.

The war has also drawn in Iran-aligned armed groups across the Middle East and sparked fears of a broader regional conflict.

The latest flare-up came on Sunday when Hamas ally Hezbollah launched rockets and drones at Israel in retaliation for the killing by Israel of one of the group's top commanders in July.

Israel, in turn, carried out air raids that the military said thwarted a larger attack.

Israel later swiftly revoked a state of emergency, and Hezbollah said its operation, during which hundreds of rockets and drones were fired, was "completed."

Israel's army chief Herzi Halevi, however, said Monday the military is "very determined to continue degrading Hezbollah capabilities."

"We are not stopping," Halevi said.

U.S. sees truce 'progress' 

The United States, meanwhile, struck a cautious note of optimism on Monday regarding efforts to clinch a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages taken by Palestinian militants during the Oct. 7 attack.

Out of 251 hostages seized, 105 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Their fate is central in truce talks, with relatives and supporters piling pressure on the Israeli government in weekly protests demanding their return home.

A key sticking point in the talks has been Israel's insistence on keeping control of the so-called Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border to stop Hamas from re-arming, something the militant group has refused to countenance.

Cairo, which has been mediating the talks alongside Qatar and the United States, insisted on Monday "it will not accept any Israeli presence" along the corridor, Egyptian state-linked Al-Qahera news reported citing a high-level source.

In Washington, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters "there continues to be progress" and that the talks would continue and involve "working groups" for several days.

Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder, meanwhile, said there was still a "threat of attack" by Iran on Israel.

The day in late July after Israel killed Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in a strike on a southern Beirut suburb, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran. Israel never claimed responsibility for Haniyeh's death, which Iran has vowed to avenge.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi late on Sunday said Tehran's reaction to Haniyeh's death would be "definitive" and "well calculated."

"We do not fear escalation, yet do not seek it—unlike Israel," he added.

Iran also praised Hezbollah's attack on Israel on Sunday, whose "main target," the group's head Hassan Nasrallah said, was an intelligence base outside Tel Aviv, more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the Lebanese border.

Israel's military said there were "no hits" on the Glilot complex, which Israeli media said is home to the headquarters of the Mossad spy agency.

Its airstrikes hit more than 270 targets in Lebanon, "90 percent" of which were rockets "aimed at northern Israel," the military said.