A boy salvaging items from the rubble watches the full moon rising behind destroyed buildings in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis early on July 22, 2024.AFP
The area includes the eastern part of the Mawasi humanitarian zone, in the southern Gaza Strip, the theatre of Israel's deadly attacks which killed 90 people and injured at least 300 others, last week.
The Israeli army said it is planning to begin an operation against Hamas who it claims embedded themselves in the area and used it to launch rockets toward Israel.
Many Palestinians have been uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israel's genocidal air and ground campaign.
Earlier this month, Israel said it estimates at least 1.8 million Palestinians are now in the humanitarian zone it declared covering a stretch of about 14 kilometres (8.6 miles) along the Mediterranean.
Much of that area is now blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid, UN and humanitarian groups say.
Families live amid mountains of trash and streams contaminated by sewage, say these groups.
The announcement came during delicate negotiations seeking a ceasefire in Gaza, with US and Israeli officials expressing hope that an agreement is closer than ever, and as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to make a trip to the United States to meet with President Joe Biden and address Congress.
A negotiating team will be sent to continue talks on Thursday, Netanyahu’s office said. Egypt, Qatar and the United States continue to push Israel and Hamas toward a phased cease-fire deal that would stop the fighting.
Israel has killed more than 38,900 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, since the war started.
The Israeli army said on Monday that it is continuing to attack central and southern Gaza.
Israeli warplanes attacked two locations with missiles in the eastern outskirts of Khan Younis killing at least 17, according to the Palestinian media.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said: "Areas instructed by the Israeli army for displaced persons to head to are not safe."
On Sunday, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 15 people, including women and children, in Gaza, according to hospital officials and a body count by an Associated Press journalist.
Meanwhile, Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, reported that heavy gunfire from Israeli forces targeted a UN convoy en route to Gaza City.
The convoy was travelling Sunday "in clearly marked UN armoured vehicles and the staff were wearing UN vests," he explained.
"One vehicle was hit by at least five bullets while waiting near the Israeli forces' checkpoint south of Wadi Gaza. The car was severely damaged and had to leave the convoy."
This movement, like all UN operations, was coordinated and approved by Israeli authorities, he noted.
The already precarious humanitarian conditions inside besieged Gaza have worsened with the discovery of the polio virus as water and sanitation services have deteriorated for the territory’s 2.3 million people, most of them displaced. Traces of the virus were found in sewage samples in Gaza.
The World Health Organization said no one has been treated for symptoms caused by the disease.
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