Israel tells Gaza City residents to move to safe zone as it expands operations

"Parts of the city, home to nearly 1 million people, are already considered "red zones," where evacuation orders have been issued ahead of the expected offensive. Aid groups have repeatedly warned that a large-scale evacuation of Gaza City would exacerbate the dire humanitarian situation, after the world's leading authority on food crises declared the city to be gripped by famine, Palestinians have been uprooted and displaced multiple times during the nearly two-year-long war, with many being too weak to move and having nowhere to go."

"Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote in X that the army declared Muwasi - a makeshift tent camp in southern Gaza Strip - a humanitarian area and urged everyone in the city, which it called a Hamas stronghold and specified as a combat zone, to leave. The army said they could travel in cars down a designated road without being searched."

Israeli forces ordered Gaza City residents to leave for the south ahead of an expected offensive while carrying out heavy strikes. Parts of Gaza City, home to nearly 1 million people, are designated "red zones" with evacuation orders. Aid groups warned that mass evacuation would worsen the humanitarian catastrophe amid famine declarations and repeated displacement leaving many too weak to move. The army declared Muwasi a humanitarian area and provided a map showing a safe zone in Khan Younis that includes the block with Nasser Hospital. The designated zone would contain field hospitals, water pipelines, food and tents, but the declaration was made unilaterally without U.N. inclusion.

Read at Irish Independent