By Beyza Binnur Donmez
GENEVA (AA) – UNICEF warned on Tuesday that the so-called safe zones declared by Israel in Gaza do not meet the requirements of a safe zone and pose risks to be "zones of disease."
"Without water, without sanitation, without shelter, the so-called safe zones risk becoming zones of disease," UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said in a UN press briefing in Geneva.
"In the current context of the so-called safe zones, they are not scientific," Elder said and added: "They are not rational. They are not possible."
The places people evacuated to must have sufficient resources for survival, including medical facilities, water and food, he said.
"So that is it's not a safe zone," the spokesperson said. "It's only free from bombardment, as some zones have not been."
Elder underlined that the promise when the first evacuation order to Gaza's south came was not seeing "the level of death and destruction of women and children and homes that in the South that we saw in the north."
"That is absolutely not the case," he stressed.
Israel resumed its military offensive on the Gaza Strip on Friday after the end of a week-long humanitarian pause with the Palestinian group Hamas.
At least 15,899 Palestinians have been killed and more than 42,000 others injured in relentless air and ground attacks on the enclave since Oct. 7 following a cross-border attack by Palestinian group Hamas.
The Israeli death toll in the Hamas attack stood at 1,200, according to official figures.