This picture taken from a position at Israel's border with the Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing amid Israeli bombardment of the besieged Palestinian territory. Israel unleashed a massive new bombing campaign on Gaza City last night. Photo / Menahem Kahana, AFP
Key aid groups suspended or greatly curtailed what remains of their operations in eastern Gaza City today after Israeli tanks arrived at the city limits as part of a ground offensive to seize the city.
“Our staff and a million more people in Gaza are facing a harrowing, untenable decision: Stay and maybe be killed, or leave their homes, maybe never to return,” said Sean Carroll, president and chief executive of American Near East Refugee Aid, known as Anera, a Washington-based non-profit.
Anera suspended all work in Gaza City. Carroll said staff members are planning to move south.
Tens of thousands of residents could lose access to vital water delivery, among other basic services, aid organisations warned.
For months, groups have laboured to deliver food, water and medical care to Gaza City, where the enclave’s starvation crisis is at its worst.
Staff members at more than a dozen humanitarian aid sites, including three health clinics, have been instructed to shelter in place or leave their headquarters since Friday, according to United Nations security announcements reviewed by the Washington Post.
Israeli officials from COGAT, an arm of the Israeli Defence Ministry that oversees civilian affairs in the West Bank and Gaza, told humanitarian workers in a briefing last week that any movement within city limits would be “almost impossible” because of the intensity of operations.
As the battle intensifies in the east of the city, aid groups have tried to concentrate on any remaining services in the west.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that taking control of Gaza City is necessary to declare victory over Hamas and bring the remaining hostages held by the militants home.
Some of Israel’s top military brass, including the Chief of Staff of the Israel Defence Forces, Eyal Zamir, have openly opposed Netanyahu’s plans.
The IDF’s top lawyer told Zamir last week that issuing evacuation directives without a full analysis of the humanitarian conditions to house one million people in southern Gaza could be “legally indefensible”, according to a Haaretz report.
Several groups instructed staff members to stay home as Israeli forces moved into the city, but few offered further guidance for employees.
“It’s a personal choice for our staff members. We are not telling staff you must remain, and we are not telling staff to move south,” said Shaina Low, a communication adviser for the Norwegian Refugee Council.
The organisation, like many others, has temporarily suspended its operations in Gaza City because of the frequency and intensity of bombardment.
An airstrike struck within 500m of the organisation’s premises last week, according to Low.
“Israel provides 35 minutes’ notice, on average, before striking a building,” said a UN security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The UN works directly with COGAT to deconflict military operations in civilian areas.
A spokesperson for the IDF said that the military has operated in accordance with international law while avoiding harm to uninvolved civilians. In certain cases, the IDF issues multiple evacuation notices to encourage residents to evacuate.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said that it plans to continue work despite the bombardment. Mercy Corps said it will deliver water at least until “the fuel and other resources run out”.
A group of medical workers were preparing to move equipment south, including one of the last CT scanners in Gaza City, after receiving orders to leave their clinic last weekend.
Tessa Pope, a spokesperson for Medical Aid for Palestinians, warned that it would be challenging for them to move on such short notice because movement is costly and only possible “if a driver or vehicle is available”.
Aid workers warned that many people did not have the financial resources to comply with Israel’s relocation orders.
The US said in a statement yesterday that an 30km ride south to Mawasi, Israel’s designated humanitarian zone, could cost US$250 to US$1600 ($420-$2670).
For most families that have not collected a steady income over 23 months of war, this sum is out of reach.
“Over ... 800,000 people are not able to evacuate because they don’t have money to pay for a truck and they don’t have tents or a place to live,” said an aid worker who left Gaza City three days ago, who spoke over WhatsApp on the condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an umbrella group representing Israeli families of hostages seized in Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023, rallied outside the Prime Minister’s Jerusalem residence today to protest against an expanding offensive that could risk Israeli lives.
“After 710 nights of being held captive by terrorists, tonight could be the final night for hostages who are barely surviving,” the forum said in a statement.
The US estimated that more than 68,000 people had left the city since September 11.
Many chose to walk to Mawasi, a designated humanitarian zone that is about the size of an airport. Israel has ordered people to move there, despite reports of rampant disease and overcrowding.
“People are paying US$80 just for land to pitch a tent,” Low said. The coastal area lacks basic services and has frequently come under Israeli fire.
Unlike aid workers, most people in Gaza City do not have access to humanitarian notifications. Abeer Barakat, a 44-year-old resident of Gaza City, said she leaves her phone on all night waiting for a call.
“I used to put my mobile on ‘do not disturb,’ but now I keep it on. I’m scared it will ring and someone will tell me to evacuate or I will find myself under the rubble.”
- Maham Javaid contributed to this report.
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