“The IDF orders the residents of Gaza to move to the humanitarian zone in the area of al-Mawasi, where international humanitarian aid will be directed if necessary.”
That’s what it sounded like when the Arabic-speaking spokesperson for Israel’s Defense Forces, the IDF, for the first time called on Palestinians in Gaza to go to a humanitarian zone to take shelter from the fighting via Platform X.
Since then, the IDF has on at least 15 different occasions repeated the call on social media, according to BBC.
Sleeping in cars
But the area consists mostly of sand dunes and farmland. There are few buildings to take shelter in. And there is no humanitarian aid, according to witnesses BBC and New York Times.
Many pitch tents or sleep in their cars due to the lack of space.
The aid organizations’ alarm
“To unilaterally establish humanitarian zones in Gaza risks exposing the civilian population to even greater danger, increasing their vulnerability to attacks and potentially risking an even greater loss of human life,” write a dozen aid organizations, including Oxfam and Save the Children, in a joint statement.
The IDF believes that there are no alternatives.
– It is a small area, and it would have been better if there was more land and space. It would have been even better if Hamas had chosen not to fight inside the densely populated civilian areas, says Jonathan Conricus, spokesman for the IDF.