The Israeli military said residents would be provided with tents and other shelter equipment starting from Sunday
Palestinians in Gaza City face overcrowding and “horrible” conditions as the Israeli military moves to relocate them to the south of the enclave ahead of a new offensive, experts have warned.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said residents would be provided with tents and other shelter equipment starting from Sunday before it relocates them from combat zones “to ensure their safety”.
Earlier this month Israel said it intended to launch a new offensive to seize control of northern Gaza City, the enclave’s largest urban centre.
The director of the last hospital providing health services in the North Gaza governorate said some people have started leaving the area but others are waiting for more definitive communications from the Israeli military.
Dr Mohammed Salha, director of al-Awda hospital in Jabalia, which is 4km north of Gaza City, said providing tents would not address the problems with a lack of space as Palestinians are squeezed into smaller and smaller parts of the enclave to avoid bombing.
Some Palestinians have already relocated to Gaza City to escape offensives in other areas.
Dr Salha said if the evacuation plans go ahead, all Palestinians would be living in only seven per cent of the Gaza Strip.
“We have our office in Gaza City,” he told The i Paper. “I am staying there. The tents are surrounding our office. When we are coming with the car, we can’t enter because of the tents.
“If these people move from Gaza City to the south, it will be really horrible.”
He said there are no usable roads because they are filled with tents. A camp surrounds the office “because there is no place for people to go”, he added.
Dr Salha said his wife and family are already in the south and she tells him it’s already “very crowded” and “there is no place to put your foot”.
Forty percent of Palestinians are currently still in the north and Gaza City.
Dr Salha runs the main hospital as well as two nearby field hospitals.
His hospital has previously received evacuation orders from the IDF but he has repeatedly refused them and would do so again.
“From the beginning of this aggression, they have ordered us to evacuate more than 10 times, but we have refused, because if there is no al-Awda hospital, a lot of people will suffer,” he said. “We are also providing health services for women, and we are the only health provider for maternity services and reproductive health services in the north.”
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last Sunday that the civilian population will be evacuated to what he described as “safe zones” from Gaza City, which he called Hamas’s last stronghold.
The shelter equipment will be transferred via the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza by the United Nations and other international relief organisations after being inspected by defence ministry personnel.
The military declined to comment when asked whether the shelter equipment was intended for Gaza City’s population, estimated at around one million people, and whether they will be relocated to Rafah, an area in southern Gaza bordering Egypt.
A spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Israel’s plans to relocate people to southern Gaza would only increase suffering.
But the UN body welcomed Israel’s move to allow tents and other shelter equipment into Gaza and said it would “seize” the opportunity.
The UN warned on Thursday that thousands of families already suffering dire humanitarian conditions could be pushed over the edge if the Gaza City plan goes ahead.
