Israeli escalation in southern Gaza 'defies' assurances of safety: UN

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - Israel's decision to ramp up its bombing campaign in the southern half of the Gaza Strip "defies" earlier assurances it made that the region would be a refuge for those fleeing the violence, the UN said Friday.

Natalie Boucly, the acting deputy commissioner general of the UN's Palestine refugee agency, told the General Assembly that "nowhere is safe in Gaza" amid Israel's ongoing war in the coastal enclave.

"The Israeli authorities asked people to move to the south. However, no part of the Gaza Strip has been spared from bombardment," the senior UNRWA official said. "The military escalation in the south of the last few days defies the reassurance that people had received about moving south to be safe."

Israel's Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi said earlier Friday that after being "close to dismantling the military system" of Hamas in northern Gaza, the Israeli military would now seek to target "more and more regions."

The Israeli military dropped leaflets in several neighborhoods in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, telling residents to evacuate their homes. Army radio further commented that this is an “important step that indicates an expected expansion” of Israeli military operations toward the southern Gaza Strip.

More than 1.5 million people in Gaza have already been internally displaced, many of whom have fled to the south, according to UN data. Hundreds of thousands remain in the north where intense fighting continues, and where just one of the region's 24 hospitals -- al-Ahli -- is operational.

Since Israel started bombarding Gaza following Hamas's Oct. 7 cross-border attack, at least 11,500 Palestinians have been killed, including over 7,800 women and children, and more than 29,200 others have been injured, according to the territory's Health Ministry.

The true toll is likely much higher, however, in part because of the fact that "bodies under the rubble take time to be discovered," Martin Griffiths, the UN's humanitarian affairs coordinator, said.

Nearly half of all of Gaza's housing has been destroyed or severely damaged, UN data shows as Israel continues its aerial bombardment and ground invasion.

"The nature and scale of civilian harm is characteristic of the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects in a densely populated area," said Griffiths.

He emphasized that continuing to facilitate aid solely through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt has become “logistically impossible,” calling on Israel to grant permission to use the Kerem Shalom crossing where some 60% of international aid was delivered prior to the conflict.

Amid the mass destruction, an Israeli siege has also cut Gaza off from fuel, electricity and water supplies, and reduced aid deliveries to a small fraction of what they were prior to the outbreak of hostilities.

Dennis Francis, the president of the UN General Assembly, repeated the international community's call for an immediate ceasefire, emphasizing, "this appeal is not mine alone – it is the resonating call of the larger membership of the General Assembly itself."

"We need safe and unimpeded humanitarian access, now. We demand that Hamas unconditionally return the hostages taken, now. And we demand that the combatants act in full compliance with international law – including the laws of war, at all times, and in all circumstances," he said in his opening remarks.

During its Oct. 7 attack, Hamas took over 200 people back to the Gaza Strip as hostages.