UN slams Israel's block on bringing tents to Gaza
Jens Laerke, spokesman for the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA, said shelter items had been banned from entering Gaza for about five month, a period when more than 700,000 people had been displaced or re-displaced.
"They may have been provided with a tent, and then they are displaced again, and they have no possibility of taking the tent with them," he told a press briefing in Geneva.
He said the Israelis could classify tents as "dual use" because they considered tent poles to have a potential military purpose.
Israel announced earlier this month that it intended to take over Gaza City and issued another displacement order to residents on Saturday.
Laerke said the order had not changed the situation on the ground, and tents were still not being allowed into the territory.
Separately, the U.N. human rights office accused Israel of sending Palestinians to areas where strikes were continuing.
Spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan said "hundreds of thousands" were being told to go to the south to Al-Mawasi, which he said was still under bombardment.
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