Evacuation orders sow confusion in Gaza as mediators work on truce proposal

GAZA — The Israeli military has issued so many evacuation orders in 10 months of conflict that many Gaza civilians no longer heed them, despairing of finding space or safety in the enclave.

Over the first three weeks of August, the Israeli army sent out 11 evacuation orders via flyers dropped from planes, text messages or social media.

They called on 250,000 Gazans, almost all of whom had been displaced at least once already, to leave their place of shelter.

"For your safety, we urge you to evacuate immediately," read one such order sent out on Thursday in the southern province of Khan Younis.

"Every time we arrive somewhere, we get a new evacuation order two days later. This is no way to live," Haitham Abdelaal told Agence France-Presse.

Amneh Abu Daqqa, 45, said she saw no point in moving again, when there are so few options for safe haven. "To go where?" the displaced mother of five asked.

"There is nowhere safe, there are airstrikes everywhere."

The United Nations said tens of thousands of civilians have been on the move again this week from Deir al-Balah and the southern city of Khan Younis after Israeli military evacuation orders, which precede military operations.

The conflict has displaced about 90 percent of Gaza's population, often multiple times, leaving them deprived of shelter, clean water and other essentials as disease spreads, the UN says.

"Civilians are exhausted and terrified, running from one destroyed place to another, with no end in sight," Muhannad Hadi, a humanitarian coordinator of the UN, said on Thursday.

The proliferation of Israeli evacuation orders also severely complicates relief distribution by United Nations agencies in a blockaded territory where aid trickles in via Israeli-held entry points.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied reports on Thursday suggesting that Israel is considering agreeing to the deployment of an international force along a narrow border strip between Gaza and Egypt known as the Philadelphi Corridor.

"Prime Minister Netanyahu insists on the principle that Israel will control the Philadelphi Corridor to prevent the rearmament of Hamas, which would allow them to repeat the atrocities of Oct 7," his office said in a statement.

Ongoing fighting

Palestinian health officials said Israeli strikes have killed at least 16 people in the Gaza Strip. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital received the bodies, which were counted by an Associated Press reporter and included the remains of a woman and three children, after strikes overnight and into Thursday.

US and Israeli delegations started a new round of meetings in Cairo on Thursday aimed at resolving differences over a truce proposal to end the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, two Egyptian security sources said.

Egyptian and US officials had met to seek compromises over plans for providing security on the border between Egypt and Gaza following an Israeli military withdrawal demanded by Hamas, the sources said.

The proposals were due to be presented to Israeli officials later on Thursday, with a Qatari delegation due to join on Friday, they added.

Egypt, along with the United States and Qatar, has been a mediator in months of stop-start negotiations to secure a cease-fire in Gaza, as well as the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.

Agencies Via Xinhua