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19-08-2025
GAZA CITY/ CAIRO: Palestinian militant group Hamas said on Sunday that Israel’s plan to relocate residents from Gaza City constitutes a “new wave of genocide and displacement” for hundreds of thousands of residents in the area.
The group said the planned deployment of tents and other shelter equipment by Israel into southern Gaza was a “blatant deception”.
The Israeli military has said it is preparing to provide tents and other equipment starting from Sunday ahead of its plan to relocate residents from combat zones to the south of the enclave “to ensure their safety”.
Hamas said in a statement that the deployment of tents under the guise of humanitarian purposes is a blatant deception intended to “cover up a brutal crime that the occupation forces prepare to execute”.
Israel said earlier this month that it intended to launch a new offensive to seize control of northern Gaza City, the enclave’s largest urban centre. The plan has raised international alarm over the fate of the demolished strip, which is home to about 2.2 million people.
The war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli authorities. About 20 of the remaining 50 hostages in Gaza are believed to be still alive.
Israel’s subsequent military assault against Hamas has killed over 61,000 Palestinians, Gaza’s health ministry says. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced most of Gaza’s population and left much of the enclave in ruins
However, boxes of Gaza-bound aid turned back by Israel on Sunday languished atop a truck and flatbed trailer parked metres from its border with Egypt, as exasperated drivers and UN officials criticized delays in sending food and medicine to the enclave. Seven aid officials and three truckers interviewed by Reuters listed a host of obstacles, ranging from rejections of shipments for minor packing and paperwork issues to heavy scrutiny over possible dual military use for a range of goods, as well as short working hours at the Israeli border crossing.
The supplies seen by Reuters on Monday on the stalled truck and trailer outside Egypt’s Rafah border crossing carried blue logos of the World Health Organization and labels describing contents like topical medications and suction devices to clean wounds. A WHO employee working at the border said the cargo was blocked for carrying “illegal medicines”. Media could not independently verify why the trucks were not allowed to enter Gaza and the Israeli military authority in charge of coordinating aid did not respond to a question about why they were not let into the enclave. Media visited Egypt’s border with Gaza on Monday on a trip organized by the Elders, a group of former world leaders set up by late South African President Nelson Mandela that backs a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Some Elders members have been highly critical of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, including former Irish President Mary Robinson and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who joined the border trip.
Responding to international outrage sparked by images of starving Gazans, Israel on July 27 announced measures to let more aid into Gaza but aid agencies say only a fraction of what they send is getting in. Israel strongly denies limiting aid supplies.
Speaking to reporters at the Rafah crossing, Clark expressed shock at the amount of aid turned back at the border.
“To see this crossing, which should be a place where people interact with each other, where people can come and go, where people aren’t under blockade, where people who are ill can leave to come out, to see it just silent for the people, it’s absolutely shocking for us,” Clark said. (Int’l News Desk)
