Politics Israel calls on residents of several Gaza neighborhoods to flee

Following repeated rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army is planning a new military operation - and is therefore calling on residents of several neighborhoods in the north of the territory to flee. According to an appeal published in Arabic by an army spokesperson, people should take refuge in shelters west of the city of Gaza. The military wants to take action against the Islamist Hamas and other terrorist organizations there due to the ongoing shelling from the area.

Aid organizations are extremely critical of the regular Israeli calls for civilians in the Gaza Strip to flee. "The constant evacuation orders are wearing down families in Gaza and making life-saving aid much more difficult," said Martin Frick, head of the Berlin office of the UN World Food Program. "Almost everyone in Gaza has been displaced by successive evacuation orders since October 2023."

According to Frick, around 86 percent of the embattled coastal strip is an evacuation zone. In August alone, numerous calls to flee affected a quarter of a million people. "Some families are fleeing for the tenth time."

The few places where people have sought shelter are suffering from hunger and disease. According to the UN organization, the Palestinians are also living in crowded conditions. "This daily horror has become a terrifying normality," says Frick.

The Gaza war was triggered by the unprecedented massacre carried out by terrorists from Hamas and other groups in Israel on October 7 last year.

According to the Israeli army, two shells were fired from the north of the Gaza Strip towards the Israeli border town of Sderot in the early evening. One was intercepted and the other landed in an open area. There were initially no reports of casualties.