OCHA: Israel designated 20 percent of central and south Khan Younis for immediate evacuation

GAZA: The Israeli military yesterday designated a new area covering about 20 percent of central and south of Khan Younis city for immediate evacuation, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory. The area was marked in an online map published on social media. Before the onset of the Israeli aggression on October 7, this area was home to nearly 111,542 people. The area also includes 32 shelters that accommodated about 141,451 internally displaced persons (IDPs), the vast majority of whom were previously displaced from the north. Instructions accompanying the map call residents to move immediately to shelters further south of Khan Younis, specifically in al-Shaboura, Tel al-Sultan and al Zahur neighborhoods in Rafah governorate which are already overcrowded. The scope of displacement resulting from the order to evacuate is unclear, said OCHA. Areas encompassing about 30 percent of the Gaza Strip (excluding the orders to eva cuate the areas north of Wadi Gaza) have been marked for evacuation on the Israeli military's online map. However, access to this information is impaired by recurrent interruptions in telecommunications and the lack of electricity. The inflow of IDPs to Rafah governorate continued yesterday. As shelters in Rafah city have exceeded their capacity significantly, most newly arriving IDPs have settled in the streets and in empty spaces across the city. Rafah governorate has become the most densely populated area in the Gaza Strip, with hundreds of thousands of IDPs squeezed into extremely overcrowded spaces and in dire living conditions. Population density is assessed to now exceed 12,000 people per square kilometer, a fourfold increase before the escalation. Thousands of people line up before aid distribution centers in need of food, water, shelter, and protection, amid the absence of latrines and adequate water and sanitation facilities in informal displacement sites and makeshift shelters. This situation is compounded by the cold winter and rain over the last week, which have flooded tents and other makeshift shelters. Source: Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA