The Financial Times reported that a UN official said that they had warned in discussions with the United States of “another catastrophe,” adding that they did not believe the Israelis would allow the displaced from northern Gaza to return to their areas.

He pointed out that the Israelis say they are looking for leaders of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the south, so they want to expel people from there as well.

The official said that Israel and the United States are pressing to establish a “safe zone,” and that Washington is “positioning the proposal as a humanitarian solution,” because the United Nations schools that serve as shelters for displaced Palestinians are overcrowded, and people are sleeping in the open, even as the rain falls and the temperature drops.

Egyptian refusal

The UN official added that the safe zone proposal makes Egypt “very nervous,” because conditions in any “safe zone” are likely to deteriorate in the medium term, prompting “those who can afford it” to seek to enter Egypt.

Cairo insists that it is not prepared to host the influx of Palestinian refugees expelled from Gaza.

The commander of the Israeli occupation army, Herzi Halevy, said that he was ready to expand his ground operation outside northern Gaza, as the United Nations warned of attempts to encircle the population in a “safe zone” in the southwest of the Strip.

Halevy's statements came a day after the Israeli army dropped thousands of leaflets on some neighborhoods in Khan Yunis, south of Gaza, urging civilians to evacuate their homes. Relief organizations warned that the mass exodus of civilians was exacerbating a humanitarian catastrophe.

Refusing to unilaterally create safe zones

The newspaper pointed out that a group of United Nations agencies said the day before Thursday that they would not participate in any “safe zones” created without the approval of all parties, warning that they may exacerbate humanitarian risks to civilians, noting that “there is no truly safe zone.” When declared unilaterally or enforced through the presence of armed forces.”

The heads of 20 UN humanitarian agencies and others warned in a joint statement that under the prevailing circumstances, proposals to unilaterally create a safe zone in Gaza risk causing harm to civilians and widespread loss of life and must be rejected.

Before its ground invasion of Gaza last October, Israel said it would establish a “safe zone” in Al-Mawasi, a 14-square-kilometre area in the southwest, where humanitarian aid would be provided.

Source: Financial Times + Aljazeera