No safe haven in Gaza Strip: Palestinian Interior Ministry

By Nour Abuaisha

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - The Palestinian Interior Ministry in Gaza announced Saturday that the Israeli army has been ramping up psychological pressure on residents by urging them to evacuate their homes in northern governorates and move to the south, but "there are no safe areasé throughout the Gaza Strip.

In recent days, the Israeli army released maps indicating routes for Palestinians to move from the Gaza and north governorates to the south, claiming these routes were “safe.”

However, eyewitnesses told Anadolu that the Israeli army stationed on the Netzarim axis, south of Gaza City is killing Palestinians as they attempt to pass through.

The ministry said that “the occupation is deceiving citizens by broadcasting images and scenes of displaced people at checkpoints, creating the illusion that there are no inspections.”

It warned against “the occupation’s lies and deceit,” noting that the army “commits severe torture and abuse against displaced individuals away from the cameras, executes dozens, and allows the injured to bleed to death.”

The ministry also called on the international community to "intervene urgently and pressure the occupation to end its displacement policy, which has been enforced since the war began, including using starvation in Gaza and North Gaza as a systematic strategy to force people to move.”

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

More than 38,900 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 89,600 injured, according to local health authorities.

Over nine months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi