GAZA, (The Palestinian Information Center) Euro-Med Monitor said that Israel’s declaration of Al-Mawasi in Khan Yunis as a “humanitarian zone” is propaganda, disproven by relentless military attacks and the dire conditions of hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced people. Families there lack adequate shelter, food, water, and health services, living in overcrowded tents that especially endanger children, women, and the elderly.
Euro-Med Monitor added in a statement on Sunday that on 6 September, the Israeli army again claimed better services would be provided in Al-Mawasi, despite the area lacking infrastructure to host the huge numbers pushed there after Rafah and Khan Yunis were destroyed. The organization noted this is not the first time Israel made such claims. Since October 2023, Al-Mawasi has been subjected to continuous bombardment from air, land, and sea, in clear violation of international law.
The Monitor documented that Israeli fighter jets carried out 109 airstrikes on the area since October 2023, killing hundreds and injuring thousands. Military vehicles, drones, gunboats, and artillery fire repeatedly struck displaced people in their tents, burning them alive, or while they gathered for aid and water. According to the organization, designating Al-Mawasi as a “safe zone” has turned it into a tool of genocide, where dense overcrowding and highly destructive weapons inflicted maximum casualties and extreme psychological and physical suffering.
Euro-Med Monitor emphasized that any evacuation area under international law must be provided with adequate shelter, food, clean water, healthcare, and safety. Al-Mawasi offers none of these, functioning instead as a death trap. Covering only 12,000 dunums (three percent of Gaza), the former farmland cannot host nearly one million newly displaced alongside the 800,000 already there, leading to unbearable overcrowding and uninhabitable conditions.
The organization reported that hospitals in the zone are non-functional or targeted. The Nasser Medical Complex was stormed in February 2024, turned into a site of executions, then struck again last month by tank shells that killed more than 20 people, including five journalists, a doctor, and a civil defense worker. Al-Amal Hospital is out of service after repeated attacks; Gaza European Hospital is partly destroyed and located in a combat zone. Field hospitals provide minimal services but remain vulnerable, as seen when Israeli forces detained the Ministry of Health’s field hospitals director during an assault that also killed journalist Tamer Al-Za’anin.
Euro-Med Monitor warned that displaced families endure starvation, dehydration, and lack of medicine, heightening risks of epidemics and infections. Many live in worn-out tents or outdoors without protection from heat, cold, or rain. The absence of sewage infrastructure has turned the area into an environment of slow death. The organization further noted that Israeli forces have turned aid distribution points into killing grounds, with at least 2,362 deaths and more than 17,434 injuries recorded so far.
The Monitor urged the international community to act under UN General Assembly Resolution 377 (Uniting for Peace) to deploy an international peacekeeping force in Gaza, ensuring civilian protection, unhindered aid, and the safety of medical and relief facilities. The organization stressed that states must also enforce sanctions on Israel, including bans on arms trade, suspension of political and military cooperation, freezing of assets of those involved in crimes, and cancellation of trade privileges that enable Israel’s violations.
The Monitor urged the international community to act immediately in accordance with its legal obligations, which were reaffirmed by the International Court of Justice in its most recent advisory opinion issued in 2024. It called for ending the root causes of the Palestinian people’s suffering and persecution over the past 77 years; ensuring their right to live in freedom, dignity, and self-determination under international law; ending Israel’s unlawful occupation and settlement colonialism imposed on Palestinian lands; dismantling the system of segregation and apartheid imposed on Palestinians; ensuring the full withdrawal of Israeli presence from the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967; lifting the unlawful blockade on the Gaza Strip; guaranteeing accountability for Israeli perpetrators; and upholding the Palestinian victims’ right to compensation and redress.
Euro-Med Monitor concluded that only urgent, collective action can stop the ongoing genocide and protect over two million Palestinians from annihilation.
