UN objects to Israel's evacuation orders while fighting continues in Gaza

The army claimed to have killed scores of militants in “close-quarters combat” during its most recent attack in Gaza City, prompting the UN to express disapproval over Israel’s most recent demands for mass evacuation from Gaza on Tuesday.

On Monday, Israel expanded its evacuation order to include the majority of Gaza’s capital city, and fierce fighting broke out.

Since June 27, Israel has increased the tempo of its military operations and issued three orders for evacuation: one for Gaza City and one for the southern portion of Palestinian territory. Tens of thousands of civilians have fled, according to the UN.

Residents of Gaza City reported hearing helicopter strikes throughout the night in the southwest neighborhoods, along with “explosions and numerous gun battles.”

People who live there report that citizens are still fleeing the city, and many of the displaced have already moved from one evacuation zone only to discover that their new location of safety has now become a target.

The UN Human Rights Office said it was “appalled” at new orders to civilians, “many of whom have been forcibly displaced multiple times, to evacuate to areas where IDF military operations are ongoing and where civilians continue to be killed and injured.”

The office said civilians told to head west out of central Gaza City on Monday were caught up in new fighting as the Israeli army “intensified its strikes in the south and west of Gaza City, targeting the very areas where they had instructed people to move to”.

Gaza City residents have now been told to move to the central district of Deir al-Balah, which the UN office said “is already seriously overcrowded with Palestinians displaced from other areas of the Gaza Strip”.

The Israeli military said it was pursuing a “counterterrorism operation” against Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza City.

“Over the last day, the troops eliminated dozens of terrorists in close-quarters combat and aerial strikes,” the military said in a statement, adding that weapons have been seized and an “underground route” destroyed.