GAZA (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The BBC Verify investigative program revealed that the so-called Humanitarian Zone in Gaza, an area allegedly designated by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) as a safe refuge for civilians, has been subjected to 97 Israeli airstrikes since last May.
This area, which extends along a coastal strip, is one of the most densely populated areas, with more than a million people living in tents, dilapidated infrastructure, and limited access to aid, according to estimates by international humanitarian organizations.
Figures indicate that the IOF airstrikes have escalated significantly since the beginning of May 2024, with at least 22 strikes recorded early this month alone. According to Palestinian media, these attacks have resulted in the martyrdom of more than 550 people.
“There are almost daily strikes on the humanitarian zone, whether from Israeli military ships, quadcopters or small drones,” Gavin Kelleher, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s outreach manager in Gaza said, adding that “There is frequent shooting in this area, despite being designated by IOF as a ‘unilateral’ humanitarian zone.”
Kelleher went on saying that Israeli occupation army “is keen to maintain the illusion of a humanitarian zone within a certain size, yet this zone can be subject to evacuation orders at any time and may be targeted, too.”
The BBC noted that although the Israeli occupation army has avoided using the term “safe zone,” its statements have led civilians to interpret the term “humanitarian zone” in this way.
Juliette Touma, from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said, “We have said this over and over again, there is no safe zone in Gaza, there is no safe place, no one is safe, no place is safe.”
The Israeli occupation army pushed the people of the Gaza Strip towards the so called “safe or humanitarian zone” in November 2023, claiming that the southern Gaza Strip was a “safe area”.
The IOF reduced the area of the “safe zone” from 230 to 36 square kilometers, with about 1.7 million displaced people are now living on only 10% of the total area of the Strip without no services.
Most of the new “safe zone” is located in the Deir al-Balah Governorate in the center of the Strip, and a small part in the humanitarian Mawasi area.
Due to displacement, Central Gaza has been turned into a population center unparalleled in the world or history.
