© UNRWA/Hussein Owda. Women and children had taken refuge in an overcrowded UNRWA facility in Khan Younis, Gaza, when gunfire and shelling were heard nearby.
The mass evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military to the people of Gaza continue to push them smaller and smaller areas, while violence in Gaza continues to intensify, in a likely violation of international humanitarian law, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said today.
Israel has continued its massive bombardment of the Gaza Strip in retaliation since Hamas began its attacks on Israeli communities on 7 October, killing 1,200 Israelis and taking more than 250 hostages. So far, the current round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict has lasted for nearly four months.
Ajith Sunghay, head of the OHCHR office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said attacks on hospitals, schools and other shelters in Gaza continue to displace Palestinians, causing them to move into smaller and smaller areas and have less access to life-sustaining necessities. Such a failure is contrary to Israel's obligations under international law.
OHCHR: There is no safe space in Gaza and desperation is rife in the south
Senga noted that the IDF continues to carry out shelling in areas "unilaterally designated" as "safe", including Mahwasi in the west of Khan Younis.
He stressed that even after reports of explosions in Mahwasi on 22 and 23 January, the IDF continued to order the residents of western Khan Younis to relocate to Mahwasi.
Senga said that Israel issued multiple evacuation orders on 23, 24 and 25 January, which are believed to have affected more than 500,000 civilians in Gaza, and that three hospitals, namely Nasser Hospital, Amar Hospital and Jordan Field Hospital, which were under heavy attack and siege, were also evacuated.
"I am gravely concerned that these mass evacuation orders, which could provoke chaos, do not effectively ensure the safety of Palestinian civilians, but instead place them in an increasingly vulnerable and dangerous situation," he said. ”
Senga also described a desperate vision of Khan Younis that could spread.
"I met with some Gazans who were understandably frustrated, angry and defensive," he said. Because the destruction of schools and universities also destroyed their hopes for the future. ”
Speaking in Amman, Jordan, Senga noted that Khan Younis has been under attack in recent days with near-continuous attacks, but that medical facilities and schools, as well as United Nations facilities and residential areas, have not been spared.
OHCHR and its partners have also expressed grave concern about the situation in Rafah, the southernmost part of Gaza.
"I saw displaced people who had been ordered by the Israeli authorities to leave their homes, they did not have any place to stay, they were actually sleeping on the streets, and the streets were filled with sewage," Senga said. This hopeless state of affairs could lead to a complete collapse of order.
He continued: "The people I spoke to were concerned that extreme violence could spread to Rafah, which would have a catastrophic impact on the more than 1.3 million people already gathered in Rafah. ”
WHO: Fear of the unknown continues to deepen as health facilities are under attack again
The World Health Organization (WHO) also reiterated its grave concern about health workers and patients caught up in violence amid Israeli air strikes and street fighting between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Palestinian armed groups.
According to the latest WHO figures, 615 people have been killed and 778 injured in 318 attacks on health facilities in Gaza since the start of the current round of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At present, the violence has affected 95 health facilities in the region, and only 14 of the 36 hospitals are still functioning, seven in the south and seven in the north.
Citing the latest data from health authorities in Gaza, the WHO reported that more than 26,000 people have died in Gaza, 75% of them children and women. At least 60,000 people in Gaza have been registered as injured and more than 8,000 are missing, and they may have died in the rubble, according to a WHO spokesman, Christian Lindmeier.
He said that hostilities in Gaza had repeatedly prevented patients and supplies from entering hospitals, and that the few hospitals that were still functioning were in a completely dire situation.
Lindmeier said it was like the situation at Nasser Hospital, where many people were hiding outside where they were attacked, and the hospital was largely under siege, with no one being able to get in and no one to get out. People don't know what will happen in the next minute, and they fear for their lives.
"Since it's a hospital, it should be a refuge for those seeking help, the wounded, the shot and the sick," he said. ”
Lindmeier noted that while medical facilities in Gaza have been affected by violence, there have been more attacks on health facilities in the West Bank than in Gaza, with 358 attacks already occurring, killing seven people and injuring 59. A total of 44 health facilities were affected, including 15 mobile clinics and 245 ambulances.
