Gaza: Israeli army tells civilians to move to area no longer considered 'humanitarian'

France 24

24-04-2025

'The fire was intense and powerful. Rescue teams came to control the blaze, but it was too late.' Abed Shaat, a Palestinian journalist, was in the Al-Mawasi area, located west of Khan Younis and north of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, when an Israeli army strike hit a displacement camp on the night of April 16 to 17.
Shaat arrived on the scene a few minutes after the explosion. He posted images of the fire provoked by the strike on his Instagram account. 'I went directly on site and we were surprised to see that the target was a number of tents belonging to displaced people, which were burning intensely,' he told the FRANCE 24 Observers team. 'Entire families were burning in these flames, including children and women.'
In total, at least 16 people, including several women and children, died in this strike on displaced people's tents.
Al-Mawasi, an area long designated as a 'humanitarian zone' by the Israeli army
Our team reached out to the Israeli army, which said they had struck 'a Hamas terrorist'. 'The IDF [the Israeli army] is aware of the claim that as a result of the strike, several uninvolved civilians were harmed. The incident is under review," they added.
This strike on Al-Mawasi is far from an isolated case. On the morning of April 21, a drone strike hit a tent of displaced people, killing at least two. The same thing happened on April 19, when a missile filmed by Shaat struck right in the middle of the tents.
The UN recorded at least 23 incidents of Israeli strikes on displaced people's tents in the Al-Mawasi area since Israel broke the ceasefire on March 18. Israel claims responsibility for over a hundred air strikes across the entire Gaza Strip during the same period.
Since October 2023, the Israeli army had unilaterally designated, without consulting with humanitarian organisations, the Al-Mawasi area as supposedly more protected.
Before the ceasefire was agreed upon between Hamas and Israel in mid-January, the Israeli army was still calling on Gazans in its evacuation orders to seek refuge in this 'humanitarian zone', represented in yellow in the document below, published on January 12, 2025.
The Al-Mawasi area 'currently not defined as a safe zone' by Israel…
Since the ceasefire broke down on March 18, the Al-Mawasi area is no longer represented in the same way in the Israeli army's evacuation orders. It no longer appears in yellow and is no longer designated as a 'humanitarian zone'. These documents simply mention the 'known shelters of Al-Mawasi'.
When asked by our team about this change on April 18, the Israeli army confirmed that this area was no longer considered a humanitarian zone since the ceasefire ended. They also said that the Al-Mawasi area was 'currently not defined as a safe zone'.
In fact, even before, the Al-Mawasi area was not considered a safe zone by the Israeli army, but rather as a relatively more protected area compared to the rest of the Gaza Strip.
...which nonetheless continues to tell Gazans to go there
However, despite the area no longer being considered a humanitarian zone, Al-Mawasi still remains the only evacuation site designated by the Israeli army, as indicated by the more than 20 evacuation orders counted by the FRANCE 24 Observers team since March 18.
In a video published on April 1, the Arabic-speaking spokesperson for the Israeli army Avichay Adraee had himself called on Gazans to move to this area.
When we asked Gazan journalist Rami Abou Jamous about this change on April 21, he said the Israeli army 'has not officially declared that Al-Mawasi is no longer a humanitarian zone'.
He also said he witnessed an intensification of strikes in the area since the ceasefire broke down. 'They haven't stopped for three weeks. Almost every day, every night, there's a tent of displaced people burning," he said.
'Whether there are humanitarian zones or not, today, there is no safe place in Gaza,' said Jean-François Corty, the president of the NGO Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World). He told our team that he had not been notified of any change in the zone's status, despite the NGO teams being on the ground. In recent weeks, they themselves suffered bombings just a few hundred metres away from their consultation sites.
'All we know is that a large part of the population is in Al-Mawasi because that's where they were told to go. Humanitarian or not, this zone is the one that has been recommended by the authorities. If you don't go to these zones and you stay in the north or in the south [of the Gaza Strip] in so-called 'military' zones, you are killed without warning,' he said.
A 'humanitarian zone' hit at least 97 times by Israel between May 2024 and January 2025
Abou Jamous also pointed out that this humanitarian zone has never been completely spared from Israeli bombings: 'People know that there is no humanitarian or safe zone in Gaza since the beginning of the war.'
Since May 2024, the Israeli army has attacked the area multiple times. In late January, the BBC's verification team, BBC Verify, counted a total of at least 97 strikes on this zone between May 2024 and January 2025.
In mid-July, the Israeli army killed over 100 people in two strikes on displacement camps, as our team reported. When questioned about this at the time, the Israeli army declared that Hamas 'has increased its military presence and operations from the humanitarian zone'. The Israeli army also acknowledged that they were carrying out strikes 'within the humanitarian zone [...] when operationally necessary'.
After one of these attacks, UNRWA Director Philippe Lazzarini declared: 'There is no 'safe' or 'humanitarian' zone in Gaza. [...] Yesterday's attack & the mass casualties are a stark reminder that no one is safe in Gaza, wherever they are.'
Evacuation orders affecting 69% of Gazan territory
Since March, 69% of the Gaza Strip's territory is now subject to evacuation orders, according to a UNRWA report published on April 17.
These orders are directly linked to Israel's strategy of territorial occupation, as its army declared on April 16 that it controlled 30% of the territory, including a large buffer zone that now encloses Gaza.
'There have been a lot of evacuation orders, but as long as there is no ground operation with tanks in the streets, residents prefer to stay in their homes rather than being displaced,' said Abou Jamous. The journalist was also affected by an evacuation order, but he chose to stay home with his family in Gaza City.
According to the last available data from the Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry, at least 1,827 Palestinians have been killed since March 18, 2025, bringing the total number of deaths in Gaza to 51,201 since the start of the Israeli retaliatory military offensive just over 18 months ago.