CNN
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Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are forced to flee again after the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders – which experts say will further disrupt aid routes and humanitarian zones.
The video shows people leaving areas near the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah on foot or in donkey carts. Some were travelling in private cars loaded with their belongings, including mattresses and blankets, water and gas cylinders. The streets appear to be littered with leaflets dropped by the Israeli army repeating the evacuation order.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have also ordered the evacuation of parts of the southern city of Khan Younis and the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.
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Many residents who are currently on the run have had to be evacuated again and again – and are now in a constant state of displacement, uncertainty and fear because they have nowhere to go.
Evacuees leaving Deir al-Balah on Wednesday described an overwhelming sense of fear, sadness and uncertainty.
“Since this morning there have been bombings, shootings and quadcopter attacks in the east of Deir al-Balah, so we are forced to flee. People are walking into the unknown. They have no idea,” said one of the evacuees, Muhammad Awad.
“There are no places left for us to go. There was only Deir al-Balah, and now they are asking us to leave Deir al-Balah,” an elderly man told CNN. “I am afraid that tomorrow they will lock us all up on the coast of Deir al-Balah and then exterminate us all.”
“After so many displacements, we no longer have the strength to evacuate again,” he added.
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A woman on a cart, Um Alaa, said it was the fourth time she had been evacuated since October last year. “We don’t know where to go. We will look for a place far away from this dangerous place,” she said. “All of Gaza has become dangerous.”
Um Ismail, a woman with young children, said people were defenseless. “Why are they fighting us?” she asked. “We are not Hamas, we are simply people staying in their homes. They have expelled us not once, but ten times. Why? What have we done?”
Abu Muhammad Hajjaj, a Gaza City resident who was previously displaced, lamented the lack of resources. Without money for a car or even a tent to live in, “we don’t know where to go,” he told CNN.
“People cry and complain about everything: disease, hunger, poverty, poor hygiene, lack of medicine. You look all over Gaza for paracetamol for headaches and you can’t find it,” he said.
Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto/AP
Palestinians flee with their belongings from Deir al-Balah, Gaza on August 21, 2024.
According to the United Nations’ main Palestinian humanitarian agency, UNWRA, evacuation orders have been issued for nearly 84 percent of the enclave since the war began.
At the same time, the “humanitarian zone” designated by Israel is shrinking steadily. In the last month alone, the Israeli army has reduced this zone by 38 percent – the remaining area is now just over a tenth of the total area of Gaza, according to a CNN analysis.
“Areas that were in the humanitarian zone are now the front line,” said Louise Wateridge, spokeswoman for UNWRA. Gaza residents “are now never more than a few blocks from the front line,” she told the UN news service.
The evacuation orders have also complicated aid efforts. The United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA reported that parts of a key road crucial for humanitarian missions from south to north were affected by the evacuations from Deir al-Balah.
It is now “almost impossible” for aid workers to travel the route, which is preventing the delivery of urgently needed relief supplies, the United Nations reported.
Among the refugees are employees of the international aid organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders.
“The ongoing forced displacement of people is inhumane,” said Jacob Granger, MSF project coordinator, in a statement on Wednesday. “People have nothing, nowhere to go. There is no space to set up tents. Overcrowding, severe water shortages and minimal sanitation facilities are all contributing to the spread of disease.”
In July, the United Nations estimated that up to 1.9 million people had been displaced in the Gaza Strip, almost the entire population of 2.1 million Gaza residents.
Last week, the enclave’s Health Ministry estimated that more than 40,000 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza since Israel’s war against Hamas began. That figure does not distinguish between fighters and civilians, but the ministry said most of the dead were women and children.
Israel said last month it had killed more than 17,000 fighters in Gaza since the war began. CNN cannot independently verify the ministry’s figures.
Throughout the evacuation, US and Israeli leaders continued to discuss a possible ceasefire and the release of hostages. President Joe Biden spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Wednesday, the White House said.
This comes at a critical time after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier this week that this may be the last chance for a deal.
CIA Director Bill Burns and other senior negotiators are expected to return to Cairo this weekend for further high-level talks.
A major sticking point is the future of the Philadelphia Corridor in the south of the Gaza Strip – a 14-kilometer-wide strip of land along the Egypt-Gaza border that is currently controlled by Israeli forces.
On Tuesday, Blinken said Israel had agreed to the troop withdrawal from Gaza outlined in the latest proposal, despite Netanyahu’s alleged comments.
Blinken was responding to Israeli media reports that Netanyahu had told the top American diplomat that Israel would not abandon the Philadelphia Corridor and the Netzarim Corridor, which cut through Gaza, “regardless of pressure to do so.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
