Top official at UN agency says "no place is safe" in Gaza as Israel calls for new areas to evacuate
Thomas White, the director of affairs in Gaza for the main United Nations agency in the enclave, criticized a call from Israel's military to evacuate new parts of central Gaza, which he says will impact more than 150,000 people — many already displaced.
“People in Gaza are people. They are not pieces on a checkerboard - many have already been displaced several times,” White, a top official in the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, wrote on the social media platform X. “The Israeli Army just orders people to move into areas where there are ongoing airstrikes. No place is safe, nowhere to go.”
Some background: A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces has urged residents of central Gaza — including Al-Bureij camp and the areas south of Wadi Gaza, which are near Al Nusairat — to move further south, warning in a statement Friday that the IDF was working “forcefully” against Hamas.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said Israel's goals in northern Gaza are being “gradually” completed and that the focus of military operations will shift south in the future — a warning repeated by Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari on Friday.
Since renewing its offensive in Gaza after the collapse of a brief truce, Israel has been urging residents to evacuate. Given ongoing communications difficulties in the enclave, it is unclear how widely the messages have been received.
A CNN analysis published Friday found that Israel has struck at least three locations in Gaza where it had ordered civilians to evacuate to since the beginning of the war in October.
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