Palestinians in Gaza were bracing for another humanitarian disaster on Sunday after Israel announced preparations to forcibly displace up to 1 million people from Gaza City.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said civilians would be transferred south “for their safety” as it prepared a new offensive to seize control of the territory’s largest urban centre.
The announcement came as Gaza’s health ministry reported that at least 40 people, including a baby, were killed in Israeli strikes on Saturday.
“Based on the directives of the political leadership … the provision of tents and shelter equipment for Gaza residents will resume,” Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Palestinian Territories (COGAT) said in a statement. Supplies, it added, would cross through Kerem Shalom under UN supervision.
For many Gazans, the plan has deepened despair. Entire families have been displaced multiple times since the war began in October.
“We are already destroyed and exhausted, physically and psychologically,” said Akram Shlabia, 85, from Shuja’iyya. “Now they want us to go south, into nothingness, into the unknown.”
Others say they would rather stay in Gaza City than endure the ordeal of relocation again.
“I didn’t leave the first time, and I won’t leave this time,” said Asma al-Barawi, 34, a mother of seven. She has already lost two brothers, several aunts, and her home.
The announcement coincided with new controversy in Israel after leaked recordings broadcast by Channel 12 captured a senior general allegedly calling for mass Palestinian deaths, including children, in the wake of Hamas’s 7 October attacks.
Meanwhile, in Washington, the US state department said it would no longer issue visas for children from Gaza in urgent need of medical care, after lobbying by far-right activist Laura Loomer.
For families in Gaza, already displaced and starved of food, water, and medicine, the looming evacuation order has compounded a sense of fear and hopelessness.
