The United Nations has been compelled to suspend its emergency relief operations in Gaza due to new evacuation orders from Israel for Deir el-Balah, according to a senior UN official. During a briefing for journalists in New York, the official stated, “We cannot deliver aid today under the conditions we are facing.” The official emphasized that the UN had previously relocated its main command centers and most personnel to Deir el-Balah after Israel ordered an evacuation of Rafah in southern Gaza in May. “Where are we supposed to move now?” the official questioned, adding that UN staff had to relocate so quickly that some equipment was left behind. “We are not leaving Gaza because the population needs us there. We are trying to balance the needs of the population with the safety of our personnel,” he stressed.
Following the briefing, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric explained that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is still able to continue operations as it remains integrated within the population. “What we are discussing is that UNRWA is integrated in those areas,” Dujarric stated. “So if they are there and can help, they will. But we [other UN agencies] cannot move people from point A to point B. We cannot find the people,” he added.
Reports from the UN headquarters indicate that the situation has become extremely difficult for the UN, as repeated evacuation orders from the Israeli military in central Gaza are disrupting humanitarian aid operations. “The senior official said they are pushing the limits of their own risk assessment. They have 90 staff members relocated to safe areas in al-Mawasi, and their 140 international staff are struggling to find housing, with some now having to sleep in their cars,” reported Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo.
The Israeli military issued the latest evacuation orders for Deir el-Balah on Sunday, which had previously been classified as a safe zone, and confirmed that it is expanding its ground offensive on the outskirts of Deir el-Balah. The evacuation orders are forcing Palestinians from their homes with no knowledge of when they might be able to return.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has also reported that its food distribution centers and community kitchens in Gaza have been increasingly disrupted by the extended Israeli evacuation orders. “WFP’s operations are severely hampered by intensified conflict, limited border crossings, and damaged roads. Over the past two months, amid ongoing catastrophic hunger, WFP has had to reduce the contents of food packages in Gaza due to dwindling supplies of emergency aid,” the organization stated.
Sam Rose, a senior field manager for UNRWA, indicated that the organization still managed to provide health and other services on Monday, but noted that even though UNRWA operates differently from the rest of the UN system, it still faces the same challenges. “We are being pushed into increasingly smaller areas of Gaza,” he told reporters. “The humanitarian zone declared by Israel has shrunk. It now constitutes about 11 percent of the entire Gaza Strip, but this is not 11 percent of land suitable for habitation or life.”
Reports from Deir el-Balah suggest that the evacuation orders have made living conditions dire for everyone. “Everyone is in panic and frustration. We are talking about more than a million people in the central area and those who have been forced into Deir el-Balah,” said Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary. “UN personnel are humanitarian workers, and they have not received any protection. That is why they have been unable to continue their operations.”
Human rights groups and international observers have criticized the evacuation orders and the mass suffering associated with them. One Palestinian man expressed uncertainty about where he and his sick son would sleep in the coming days due to the evacuation orders. “In the street! Imagine. I am with my six children on the street,” Rasim al-Attab told Al Jazeera. “We have been displaced four times – from northern Gaza, from Khan Younis, from Deir el-Balah. No one cares for us.”
“People want to live a normal life. People are looking for work, and instead, they are dying in the streets,” he concluded.