Western nations call for immediate end to Gaza war
The plea came as Deir Al Balah came under intense shelling on Monday, after Israel's military warned of imminent action in an area where it had not previously operated. The military, a day earlier, had ordered those in the central Gaza area to leave immediately as it was expanding operations, including "in an area where it has not operated before". Between 50,000 and 80,000 people were in the area when the evacuation order was issued, according to initial estimates from the UN's humanitarian agency OCHA.
Deir Al Balah resident Abdullah Abu Saleem, 48, said on Monday that "during the night, we heard huge and powerful explosions shaking the area as if it were an earthquake". He said this was "due to artillery shelling in the south-central part of Deir Al Balah and the southeastern area". "We are extremely worried and fearful that the army is planning a ground operation in Deir Al Balah and the central camps where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering," he added.
In their statement, the Western countries also denounced Israel's aid delivery model in Gaza, saying it was "dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity". The UN has recorded 875 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food since late May, when Israel began easing a more than two-month aid blockade. "We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food," the statement said.
In Deir Al Balah, images showed plumes of dark smoke billowing into the sky. The spokesman for Gaza's civil defence agency, Mahmud Bassal, said that "we received calls from several families trapped in the Al Baraka area of Deir Al Balah due to shelling by Israeli tanks".
Since the start of the war, nearly all of Gaza's population has been displaced at least once by repeated Israeli evacuation orders. According to OCHA, the latest order means that 87.8 per cent of the territory is now under evacuation orders or within Israeli militarised zones.
The families of hostages held in Gaza since October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war said they were "shocked and alarmed" by reports of evacuation orders for parts of Deir Al Balah. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum demanded political and military authorities "to clearly explain why the offensive in the Deir Al Balah area does not put the hostages at serious risk". Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,029 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. — AFP
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