The United Nations has renewed its push for an immediate cease-fire and a sustained flow of assistance to Gaza, saying that military activities and a lack of safe routes continue to impede humanitarian operations.
Its call came amid renewed mass displacements in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, at the behest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has insisted that the Palestinian militant group Hamas must be obliterated and all hostages returned before Israel ends its military offensive, now nearing its ninth month.
UN humanitarians warned on Tuesday that an estimated 250,000 people are set to be impacted by the new Israeli evacuation orders from Khan Younis on July 1, which had caused panic and chaos among residents.
Just weeks ago, Khan Younis was “deserted after intense Israeli bombardment damaged or destroyed homes and buildings”. UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the evacuation order involved about a third of Gaza’s entire population, making it “the largest order of its kind since October”, Al Jazeera reported.
At the UN Security Council Briefing on the Situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian Question, on Tuesday Sigrid Kaag, the UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction, said that the “war has not merely created a humanitarian crisis, it has unleashed a maelstrom of human misery” and stressed that international humanitarian and human rights laws must be respected by all.
She also noted that public services in Gaza have collapsed and over 1.9 million have been displaced.
The International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Israel and the occupied territories, in a statement on its X account, said the reality is that “there is no safe place in Gaza”
Fu Cong, permanent representative of China to the UN, said, “The Council adopted Resolution 2720 with the intent to expand at scale humanitarian access, but it has clearly not materialized.”
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He urged Israel to fulfill its obligations under international humanitarian law, heed the overwhelming call of the international community, and take concrete actions to ensure the rapid and safe entry of humanitarian supplies into Gaza, and called for ensuring the safe and orderly distribution of humanitarian supplies throughout Gaza, and cooperating fully with the UN and other humanitarian organizations.
Louise Wateridge, senior communications officer at the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, said the Khan Younis displacement is “another devastating blow to the humanitarian response”, including families on the ground as “it seems that they’ve been forcibly displaced again and again”.
The International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Israel and the occupied territories, in a statement on its X account, said the reality is that “there is no safe place in Gaza”.
Earlier on Tuesday, Netanyahu dismissed reports that Israel was inclined to agree to a cease-fire even if Hamas was still in power. His denial was made via a video posted on his X account, along with the same statements published on his office’s website.
The New York Times reported that Israel’s top generals “want to begin a cease-fire in Gaza even if it keeps Hamas in power for the time being”, noting a widening rift between the military and Netanyahu, “who has opposed a truce that would allow Hamas to survive the war”.
The “current and former security officials” – who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters, the report said – thought that a cease-fire “would be the best way of freeing the roughly 120 Israelis still held, both dead and alive in Gaza”.
“Anonymous sources briefed The New York Times that Israel will be prepared to end the war before all of its objectives are achieved. I do not know who these anonymous sources are, but I am here to make it unequivocally clear: This will not happen,” said Netanyahu.
“The war will end once Israel achieves all of its objectives, including the destruction of Hamas and the release of all of our hostages,” he added.
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“Israel orders Palestinians to leave Khan Younis, the city they have razed before. Israel has done this many times, telling residents to move to places it calls ‘safe’ but then bombing those exact places,” Dina Yulianti Sulaeman, director of the Indonesia Center for Middle East Studies, told China Daily.
She said the atrocity shows two crucial things: Israel “has absolutely no good intentions to save civilians”, and its goal is “to massacre as many civilians as possible”.
“Second, after nine months have passed, the international world, including the UN, is entirely barren, and it is a shame that it is unable to stop the crimes of an entity which is very weak because most of its weapons supplies come from foreign countries,” she added.
