Nowhere to go: Israeli army orders new evacuations in Gaza

The Israeli army has issued fresh evacuation orders for residents of several areas of central and southern Gaza that were classified as “humanitarian safe zones” by the army.

In a statement, the Israeli army ordered residents of neighborhoods north of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza and neighborhoods in eastern Deir al Balah in the central Gaza to evacuate the areas.

It claimed that the Palestinian resistance group Hamas “operates” from these areas and that they will be “dangerous combat zones.”

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an attack last October by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

Since then, an ongoing Israeli offensive against Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, mostly children and women. This is a conservative estimate. The UN says the death toll in the Gaza "is an approximation," and the number may be "an undercount."

Some 45 American physicians, surgeons and nurses, who have volunteered in Gaza since last October say the likely death toll from Israel's genocidal war is "already greater than 92,000".

According to a study published in the journal Lancet, the accumulative effects of Israel's war on Gaza could mean the true death toll could reach more than 186,000 people.

The Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health has also said that the true figures are likely higher than those published.

Over 10 months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.