UN Raises Alarm, Says Displaced Gazans Returning To North Despite Risks

The United Nations has warned that some displaced Palestinians who fled their homes in the north of Gaza are starting to return because of the dire situation in the south.

The Matrix reports that Israel had last week warned 1.1 million residents of Gaza City and other northern areas to leave for their own safety.

However, a  a senior UN official disclosed that they were struggling to find shelter, food and drinking water in the south.

The Hamas-run health ministry also said hundreds had been killed there in Israeli air strikes over the past day.

The Israeli military said it had hit hundreds of military targets belonging to Hamas across Gaza, as it stepped up its air campaign ahead of an expected ground offensive.

More than 5,000 people are now reported to have been killed across the Strip, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, since Israel began its bombardment in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack by Hamas on 7 October, in which at least 1,400 people were killed and 222 taken hostage.

Israel has also cut off electricity and most water and stopped imports of food and medicine, although it has allowed in several dozen aid lorries through Egypt’s Rafah crossing since Saturday.

The UN estimates that almost two-thirds of Gaza’s population – 1.4 million people – have fled their homes over the past two weeks either out of fear or because their homes have been destroyed or damaged.

The BBC’s Rushdi Abualouf in Khan Younis says the southern city has been overwhelmed by the influx of between 600,000 and 700,000 displaced people, with many sheltering inside hospitals, clubs and restaurants, or even forced to sleep in the streets.

The director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) in Gaza, Thomas White, told the BBC that most displaced people were living off just 1 litre (34 fl oz) of water and one or two small rounds of Arabic bread a day.

The humanitarian crisis, combined with continued strikes on civilian areas in the south, meant that “some people are going back to the north”, he said.

“Essentially, people have left everything in the north – their houses, their businesses, their lives. They’ve come to the south where they are struggling to find shelter, food is scarce, many people are having to drink unpotable water, so the situation in the south is dire.”

Riyad Jaabas, a displaced man staying in Khan Younis, told Reuters news agency: “We were expelled from Gaza City. They said Khan Younis is a safe area, now there is no safe space in all Gaza.”

On Saturday, leaflets dropped over Gaza City by the Israeli military warned that anyone who did not move south of the Wadi Gaza river “might be identified as an accomplice in a terrorist organisation”.