No safe zones in southern Gaza, says Unicef

The daily death toll in the ongoing Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip since dawn Friday has risen to 60.Medical sources in Gaza hospitals reported that 17 martyrs arrived at Al Shifa Hospital, 20 at Al Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital, two at Al Awda Hospital, 20 at Nasser Hospital, and one at Al Aqsa Hospital.The Israeli army has continued its comprehensive aggression on the Gaza Strip since Oct 7, 2023, resulting in the martyrdom of tens of thousands of Palestinians, the majority of whom are children and women.A number of victims remain under the rubble, unable to be reached by ambulances and rescue teams amid an unprecedented humanitarian disaster.The death toll from the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip has risen to 66,288, in addition to 169,165 injuries.In a statement Friday, the Ministry of Health in Gaza said the death toll since March 18, when the occupation violated the ceasefire agreement, has reached 13,420, in addition to the injury of 57,124 persons.Meanwhile, the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) confirmed Friday that there are no safe places for Palestinians forcibly displaced from Gaza City by Israeli forces. The areas designated for them in the southern Gaza Strip are nothing more than places of death, the organisation warned.Speaking to journalists in Geneva, Unicef spokesperson James Elder stated that the idea of a safe zone in the south is a farce.Reporting from Deir Al Balah in central Gaza, Elder described the situation as dire, bombs fall from the sky at a terrifyingly predictable pace. Schools designated as temporary shelters are routinely reduced to rubble, and tents are systematically incinerated by airstrikes.Israeli forces have compelled Palestinians to relocate to what they call a humanitarian zone in Al Mawasi along the coast, claiming it would provide aid, medical care, and infrastructure. However, repeated airstrikes on the area, despite its designation as a safe zone, reveal a deliberate targeting of civilians, Elder said.He emphasised that issuing a blanket evacuation order does not strip those who remain of their right to civilian protection, adding that so-called safe zones are also places of death.Al Mawasi, he noted, has become one of the most densely populated areas on Earth, grotesquely overcrowded and stripped of the basic means of survival.Elder recalled that the UN began debunking the notion of unilaterally declared safe zones in late 2023, stressing that the law is very clear.As the occupying power, he added, Israel is responsible for ensuring that any safe zone includes all essentials for survival: food, shelter, sanitation. None of these are adequately available.Initially, the UN assumed these zones would not be bombed. Yet over the past 18 months, Elder stressed, they have been hit dozens of times, with displaced people in tents subjected to air strikes.In a related context, Elder highlighted the dire conditions facing mothers and newborns in Gaza, amid severe shortages of medical supplies and overcrowding at Nasser Medical Complex in the south.He underscored that the situation for mothers and newborns in Gaza has never been worse, and at Nasser Hospital, they see hallways packed with women who have just given birth.Since Israel’s intensified bombardment of Gaza began in August ahead of its ground offensive, the military has continued to pressure Palestinians to move south, despite the lack of safety or protection in those areas.