Israeli military activity in the northern Gaza Strip appeared to intensify on Wednesday, prompting alarm from United Nations officials about the worsening humanitarian situation in that area of the enclave.
“Northern #Gaza: no end to hell,” said Phillippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of UNRWA, the U.N. aid agency for Palestinians, in a social media post on Wednesday. “At least 400,000 people are trapped in the area.”
On Tuesday, the Israeli military ordered residents of Jabaliya, a town in northern Gaza, to evacuate, warning that its troops would soon be targeting the area from the air and on the ground.
The latest evacuation orders came as the death toll in Gaza passed 42,000, the Gaza Ministry of Health said, just more than a year after the war began following the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel. Almost 98,000 others have been injured during the war, according to the health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths.
Many Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced repeatedly because of the war, and some have decided not to move again, despite the evacuation orders, Mr. Lazzarini noted in his post. “Many are refusing because they know too well that no place anywhere in #Gaza is safe,” he said.
Mr. Lazzarini also said that UNRWA was struggling to provide assistance amid the worsening conditions. “Shelters + services are being forced to shut,” he said. “Some for the first time since the war began. With almost no basic supplies available, hunger is spreading & deepening again.”
UNRWA’s official social media account also posted an update on the situation in northern Gaza on Wednesday, writing that “intensified military operations in the north are forcing us to shut down lifesaving services.” Seven of the agency’s schools in the area, which are currently serving as shelters for displaced people, were being evacuated, the organization said, and only two of eight water wells in Jabaliya were still operational.
The Government Media Office in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, issued a statement on Tuesday calling on international organizations to protect hospitals in the northern part of the enclave. “We reject the occupation’s threats to evacuate hospitals,” the statement said, accusing Israel of trying to “overthrow” the local health system.
The Israeli military did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
According to Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s news agency, an Israeli military strike in Jabaliya on Wednesday hit a courtyard where displaced people were living in tents, killing 15.
Ephrat Livni is a reporter for The Times’s DealBook newsletter, based in Washington. More about Ephrat Livni
