Following a seven-day ceasefire, Israel resumed its bombing campaign in Gaza as part of its effort to, as its defense minister put it, “wipe this thing called Hamas, ISIS-Gaza, off the face of the earth,” warning civilians to evacuate to “safe zones” to avoid being killed. Such directives, however, are growing increasingly difficult to follow. As a revealing statement from the UN children’s agency, Unicef, makes clear, places safe from violence in Gaza — that also have the resources people need to survive — are not just scarce, they’re virtually nonexistent.
“There are no safe zones in Gaza,” James Elder, a Unicef spokesperson, told the BBC. “These are tiny patches of barren land. They have no water, no facilities, no shelter from the cold, no sanitation.”
Elder’s quote underscores the limitations that civilians in the region now face because of the Israeli government’s military offensive and because of longstanding restrictions on people’s movement. All told, Gaza is 140 square miles, smaller than a third the size of the city of Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Times. Its residents are limited in their ability to leave Gaza due to an ongoing blockade the territory has been under since 2007 and because Israel and Egypt, its two bordering countries, have refused to take in refugees. Mobility is also challenging since airstrikes have damaged roads in the territory and fuel remains extremely scarce.
After Hamas killed 1,200 people and kidnapped over 200 people on October 7 in a brutal attack that devastated Israel, the country declared war on the militant group that oversees Gaza.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokespeople have repeatedly said the military is following international law in its air and ground war in Gaza; critics, however, have questioned those claims. Last week, an investigation from +972 and Local Call showed that Israel’s “expanded authorization for bombing non-military targets, the loosening of…
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