ICRC: no safe place in Gaza due to Israeli war

Residents in the Gaza Strip have no safe place due to the Israeli war, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday, referring to an evacuation order issued by the Israeli army.

Israel on Monday issued evacuation orders stretching from the southernmost regions of Rafah to the eastern parts of Khan Younis, including the European Gaza Hospital (EGH), the ICRC said in a press statement.

"Thousands of people learned of the evacuation instructions late in the day and fled in panic and fear," it added, noting that this group includes patients, families and the medical professionals who are crucial for the running of EGH.

"Wherever people flee to, they will arrive scarred and traumatized. They will face a lack of food, drinking water, sanitation, health care - and the prospect of needing to flee again," it said.

On Monday, the Israeli army issued an evacuation order to the neighborhoods and areas in the cities of Khan Younis and Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

This came hours after the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, claimed responsibility for launching 20 rockets at southern Israel.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) on Tuesday estimated that 250,000 people will have to flee Khan Younis, just weeks after people were forced to return to the devastated Khan Younis.

So far about 1.9 million people, or 80 percent of Gaza's population, have been displaced across Gaza, the United Nations Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag said on Tuesday.

Israel has been launching a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage. The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip has risen to 37,877, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Sunday.