Aid workers have warned that Israel’s new system of blockades on targeted evacuation warnings in the southern Gaza Strip risks turning life in the Strip into a labyrinth, which in turn poses a danger to the population, according to a report published by British newspaper The Guardian. .
When the Israeli army resumed bombing and ground operations in the Gaza Strip on Friday after the end of the humanitarian truce, which lasted about a week, the Israeli government immediately indicated its intention to intensify attacks in the south of the Strip, in the areas where Palestinian civilians had previously been invited to take refuge.
Gaza health authorities said the shelling began “within seconds of the end of the truce” early Friday morning and that at least 200 people were killed on Saturday.
Some residents crammed into small areas in the southern Gaza Strip, most of them displaced people struggling to find enough food, said they were in difficult humanitarian conditions and did not know how they would manage their affairs as the fighting nears their areas.
They stressed that “escaping the bombing is almost impossible, as they are surrounded by the sea, and the border with Israel is heavily guarded, while the border crossing with Egypt is closed to them.”
Israel began using its new network system for evacuation warnings, as Gaza was divided into more than 2,300 small blocks, and details of this system can be accessed via the Quick Response Code (barcode) found on paper flyers published by the army, or its photos on social.Social.
The order appears to be designed to allow Israeli forces to try to remove civilians from combat zones while targeting Hamas militants, giving them orders to move away to “safe areas” that in some cases cover only a few buildings, according to the Guardian.
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But on the ground, people say this has “increased their fear and confusion.” collapses regularly.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said this means residents “have no reliable way of knowing the navigation map”.
He added: “The map is said to aim to facilitate orders to evacuate specific areas before they are targeted, but the leaflets do not specify where people should be evacuated, and it is not clear how Gazans will be able to access the map without electricity and in light of frequent communications interruptions.”
The Israeli army used this network system for the first time on Saturday morning to announce evacuation warnings via the Internet, through Arab media spokesperson Avichay Adraee.
But according to the Guardian, some of the shaded areas designated for evacuation did not completely match the numbered boxes he mentioned.
Adraee previously told the Al-Hurra website that the numbers on the map “represent residential neighborhoods and residents of a certain neighborhood may be asked to evacuate and go to another neighborhood.”
He added: “Each number indicates a neighborhood known to its residents,” stressing that “the goal is to prevent evacuation to distant areas and movement from one neighborhood to another for temporary periods.”
He further stressed that “Israel does not ask Gazans to leave the Strip, but rather to abandon places where military operations take place and to evacuate from combat zones, to distinguish between civilians and militants.”
A state of confusion
Other Israeli leaflets dropped over Gaza added to the confusion, avoiding mention of the grid system and urging evacuations from larger areas.
Humanitarian groups say this leaves civilians in Gaza “trying to make life-and-death decisions without access to basic information.”
“Communications are becoming increasingly difficult and this map will not provide Palestinians with the protection they are entitled to under international law,” said Rohan Talbot, director of advocacy at the charity Medical Aid for the Palestinians (MAP).
He added: “It’s like a horrible game of battleships, where terrified civilians have to guess which square will save their lives.”
His colleague, director of the MAP organization in Gaza, Fikir Shaltut, said: “Health workers are particularly concerned about hospitals and clinics in areas designated for evacuation, after Israeli forces targeted the buildings health workers in the north”.
He continued: “This network has caused fear and panic among our colleagues on the ground. Some of them are currently in areas that Israel says could be targeted, but Israel is also bombing houses outside these areas, so no they know what to do.” .”
He concluded by saying: “We don’t know what will happen if an area with a hospital is classified as (unsafe) by Israel. These hospitals are already operating beyond their capacity, so where will the patients and staff be evacuated?”
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When asked about the logistics of alerts based on the online network system, the IDF did not clarify whether it would also provide offline alerts to Gaza residents about the evacuation of certain buildings.
Serious concerns have already been raised over Israeli plans to expand its military operations in the south, where starving and exhausted civilians are trying to survive the fighting, in overcrowded shelters where disease spreads rapidly.
Many of those forced to leave had already fled their homes in other parts of Gaza (about 80% of the Strip’s population is now displaced) and saw rockets kill hundreds of people in an area that was was said to be safe, according to the Guardian.
In this regard, a UN official in an overcrowded shelter near the town of Khan Yunis, whose family had fled the north at the start of the conflict, said: “We live in a state of frightening uncertainty, with no control over our lives, and I don’t know exactly where the bombing is.” “.
He added: “We hear the sounds of loud explosions and the ground shakes beneath us. Some children feel terrified, and my children don’t understand the situation, and I don’t want to explain it to them.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry said the total death toll in Gaza exceeded 15,200 people, more than two-thirds of whom were women and children.
Surgeon Paul Lee told the Observer newspaper on Friday evening that “the first casualties arrived hours after the ceasefire”, stressing that “he has never left the operating room since”.
He continued: “The victims started appearing mid-morning on Friday. I’ve had 12 amputations and there’s still a lot to do. They all have shrapnel wounds.”
And he added emotionally: “There was a two and a half year old child who lost his legs, and his brother was also seriously injured, while the other family members died.”
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He noted that in the hospital where he works they managed to “save the life of an adult who had a shrapnel in his heart,” adding: “I have no idea how many people were admitted to the hospital because I didn’t leave the hospital operating room all the day, so I only see the people who come to me.” “But I know that many wounded will continue to arrive.”
Israel pledged to destroy Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization, after its militants breached the border on October 7 and killed around 1,200 people, most of them civilians, including women and children, according to Israeli authorities .
According to the Strip’s health authorities, Israeli operations in Gaza have caused more than 15,000 deaths, most of them civilians, including women and children.
The truce between Israel and Hamas ended on Friday, 7 days after it came into force. The Hamas-affiliated government of the Gaza Strip announced Saturday that at least 240 people have been killed in the Strip since the ceasefire ended Friday morning.
Israel and Hamas share responsibility for the end of the truce, which allowed the release of over 100 hostages in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinian prisoners, as well as the entry of more aid into the Gaza Strip.