The United Nations has been forced to suspend its aid operations in the Gaza Strip due to Israel’s new evacuation order for Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, a senior UN official said.
Briefing journalists at UN headquarters in New York on Monday, the official said: “Under the current circumstances, we are not in a position to achieve results today.”
The official noted that the UN had moved its main Gaza command and most of its UN personnel to Deir el-Balah after Israel ordered the evacuation of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip in May.
“Where do we go now?” the official asked, adding that UN personnel had to be moved so quickly that equipment had been left behind.
“We are not leaving Gaza because the people there need us. We are trying to balance the needs of the population with the need for safety and security of UN personnel,” the official stressed.
After briefing the official, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric clarified that the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) could continue its work because it was anchored in the population. The official described the problem with the distribution of aid within the Palestinian enclave.
“We are talking about UNRWA being anchored on the ground,” Dujarric said. “So if they are there and can help, they will help and distribute. (But) we (other UN agencies) are not able to move people from point A to point B. We are not able to search for people.”
Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo reported from UN headquarters that the situation had become very difficult for the UN as the Israeli army’s repeated evacuation orders in central Gaza had disrupted the UN’s humanitarian aid efforts.
“The senior official said they were exceeding the limits of their own risk assessment. The official said they had 90 staff members who had been moved to security shelters in al-Mawasi. … Their 140 international staff members are desperately trying to find shelter. … Some are having to sleep in their cars,” Elizondo said.
“This (aid freeze) is temporary, … but right now they can’t do it for practical reasons,” Elizondo added.
Expulsion of the Palestinians
The Israeli military on Sunday issued its latest evacuation order for Deir el-Balah, which had previously been classified as a security zone, and confirmed that it is expanding its ground offensive on the outskirts of Deir el-Balah.
Due to the evacuation orders, Palestinians have to leave their homes and places of refuge without knowing if and when they will be able to return.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) also said that the work of its food distribution centres and community kitchens in the Gaza Strip was increasingly disrupted by the expansion of Israeli evacuation orders.
“WFP’s work is severely hampered by the intensifying conflict, limited border crossings and damaged roads. Over the past two months, in the face of ongoing catastrophic famine, WFP has had to reduce the contents of food parcels in Gaza as aid deliveries have declined and supplies have become scarce,” the organization said.
Sam Rose, a senior UNRWA field officer, said the agency was still managing to provide health and other services on Monday, but noted that while UNRWA operates differently from the rest of the UN system, it still faces the same challenges.
“We are being pushed into smaller and smaller areas of the Gaza Strip,” he told reporters on Monday.
“The humanitarian zone declared by Israel has shrunk. It now covers about 11 percent of the entire Gaza Strip. But that is not 11 percent of the land that is habitable, suitable for services and livable.”
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said the evacuation orders had made living conditions unbearable for everyone.
“Everyone is in panic and frustration. We are talking about more than a million people in the center and those who have been crammed into Deir el-Balah,” she said.
“The UN people are humanitarian workers and there was no protection for them. That is why they could not continue their work,” she noted, adding that the suspension of UN aid would deeply affect the people of Gaza who need their help.
Human rights groups and international observers have strongly condemned the evacuation orders and the mass suffering they have caused.
Palestinians were often attacked by Israel on their way to such “safe areas” and afterwards.
One Palestinian said he did not know where he and his sick son would sleep in the next few days because of the evacuation orders.
“On the street! Imagine this. I am on the street with my six children,” Rasim al-Attab, sitting in the hospital courtyard with his son, told Al Jazeera.
“We have been displaced four times – from northern Gaza, from Khan Younis, from Deir el-Balah. Nobody cares about us,” he said.
“People want to live a normal life. They look for money and instead die on the streets.”
