there is no safe place in Gaza because of the Israeli war

Residents in the Gaza Strip have no safe place due to the Israeli war, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday, citing an evacuation order issued by the Israeli military.

Israel on Monday issued evacuation orders stretching from the southernmost areas of Rafah to the eastern areas of Khan Younis, including the European Gaza Hospital (EGH), the ICRC said in a press statement.

“Thousands of people learned of the evacuation instructions late in the day and fled in panic and fear,” he added, noting that this group includes patients, families and health professionals who are vital to the operation of EGH.

“Wherever people flee, they will arrive scarred and injured. They will face a lack of food, drinking water, sanitation, health care – and the prospect of having to leave again,” he said.

On Monday, the Israeli army issued an evacuation order for neighborhoods and areas in the towns of Khan Younis and Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

This came hours after the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, claimed responsibility for firing 20 rockets into southern Israel.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) estimated on Tuesday that 250,000 people will have to leave Khan Younis, just weeks after people were forced back into the devastated Khan Younis.

So far, about 1.9 million people, or 80 percent of Gaza’s population, have been displaced across Gaza, the United Nations Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, said on Tuesday.

Israel has launched a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a Hamas rampage on the southern Israeli border on October 7, 2023, which killed around 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostages. The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 37,877, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Sunday.