MSF slams Israel’s latest evacuation orders for northern Gaza
Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, is calling on Israel’s military to halt its evacuation orders for northern Gaza, saying the move will only worsen the humanitarian catastrophe in the Palestinian enclave.
The group noted that in this latest forced mass displacement, residents of Beit Hanoon, Jabalia and Beit Lahiya have been told to move south to the overcrowded, so-called humanitarian zone between Al-Mawasi and Deir el-Balah.
One million people are already living in “inhumane conditions” in the area, MSF said, adding that the zone remains unsafe for civilians and aid workers due to the continued Israeli attacks in the area.
“The latest move to forcefully and violently push thousands of people from northern Gaza to the south is turning the north into a lifeless desert while aggravating the situation in the south,” said Sarah Vuylsteke, MSF project coordinator in Gaza.
“Access to water, healthcare and safety is already almost non-existent, and the thought of more people fitting into this space is impossible to imagine,” she said. “People have been subjected to endless displacement and relentless bombing for the past 12 months. Enough is enough. This must stop now.”
Israeli military order to evacuate Gaza hospital ‘feels like deja vu’: Rights group
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights has said orders for medical staff and patients, including sick children, to leave Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza feel like history repeating itself.
“If this feels like deja vu, it’s because we all know the horrors that follow such orders,” the advocacy group said on social media.
“One year into this genocide, the total inaction of the international community is enabling Israel to unleash a renewed wave of genocidal violence against northern Gaza,” the group said.
Hussam Abu Safia, the hospital’s director, told Al Jazeera he feared a repeat of the violence and destruction Israeli forces inflicted on Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital earlier in the war.
“We have babies and newborns that are in the ICU,” Abu Safia said.
“Even if we can evacuate a few patients. We cannot leave the hospital because there is no other hospital that is providing services and treatments to children, except Kamal Adwan Hospital,” he said.
Palestinians run for shelter next to covered bodies after an Israeli air strike near Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip in November 2023
Israel’s northern Gaza offensive ‘one of the most violent campaigns of genocide’
The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is calling for urgent international intervention to save tens of thousands of Palestinians trapped in northern Gaza “who are being subjected to one of the most violent campaigns of genocide the Strip has ever witnessed”.
The appeal from the Geneva-based group came as Israel’s deadly offensive in northern Gaza entered a fifth day.
“The Israeli army is systematically working to empty northern Gaza of its residents and force them to move to the south, recently issuing several evacuation orders and dropping leaflets demanding their evacuation,” Euro-Med said in a statement.
“It is clear that the Israeli army’s latest operation has no military objective or necessity; rather, it is intended to finish the destructive operations that, during three prior incursions, have affected over 85% of the buildings in northern Gaza. Additionally, it is intended to target civilians and force them to flee the area, converting it into a full military zone,” it added.
A Palestinian man wounded in an Israeli strike sits on the floor at a hospital in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, on October 5
