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Israel’s Gaza Evacuation Order Could Breach International Law, Says UN 

Smoke rises after Israeli air strikes on the northern Gaza Strip, 17 October 2023. (EPA)
Smoke rises after Israeli air strikes on the northern Gaza Strip, 17 October 2023. (EPA)
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Israel’s Gaza Evacuation Order Could Breach International Law, Says UN 

Smoke rises after Israeli air strikes on the northern Gaza Strip, 17 October 2023. (EPA)
Smoke rises after Israeli air strikes on the northern Gaza Strip, 17 October 2023. (EPA)

The United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday that Israel's siege of Gaza and its evacuation order for the north of the enclave could amount to a forcible transfer of civilians and be in breach of international law.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, said Israel seemed to have made no effort to ensure the civilians temporarily evacuated in Gaza were provided with proper accommodation, as well as satisfactory conditions of hygiene, health, safety and nutrition.

"We are concerned that this order, combined with the imposition of a complete siege of Gaza, may not be considered as lawful temporary evacuation and would therefore amount to a forcible transfer of civilians in breach of international law," she said.

"Those who managed to comply with the Israeli authorities' order to evacuate are now trapped in the south of the Gaza Strip, with scant shelter, fast-depleting food supplies, little or no access to clean water, sanitation, medicine and other basic needs."

The term "forcible transfer" describes the forced relocation of civilian populations and it is a crime against humanity punishable by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In separate comments, the World Food Program said its food supplies in Gaza were running low but that it was stockpiling supplies in the Egyptian city of Al-Arish nearby.

Abeer Etefa, WFP Regional Communications Lead for the Middle East and North Africa, said they hoped "to cross as soon as the border access is granted."

"We call for unimpeded access, safe passage to desperately needed humanitarian supplies to Gaza," she said.

Trucks carrying supplies headed towards the Rafah crossing in Egypt, the only access point to the enclave outside of Israel's control, though it was not certain whether they would be able to cross.

Fuel reserves at all hospitals across Gaza are expected to last for an additional 24 hours only, according to the UN Palestinian agency UNRWA.

"The shutdown of backup generators would place the lives of thousands of patients at serious risk," it said.

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Arab World

Blinken Calls for Push to Get Gaza Truce Deal over ‘Finish Line’

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot, southern Israel, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP)
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot, southern Israel, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP)
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Blinken Calls for Push to Get Gaza Truce Deal over ‘Finish Line’

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot, southern Israel, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP)
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot, southern Israel, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Monday for a final push for a Gaza ceasefire before President Joe Biden leaves office, after a Hamas official told Reuters the group had cleared a list of 34 hostages as first to go free under a truce.

"We very much want to bring this over the finish line in the next two weeks, the time we have remaining," Blinken told a news conference in South Korea, when asked whether a ceasefire deal was close.

Israel has sent a team of mid-ranking officials to Qatar for talks brokered by Qatari and Egyptian mediators. Some Arabic media reports said David Barnea, the head of Mossad, who has been leading negotiations, was expected to join them. The Israeli prime minister's office did not comment.

It remains unclear how close the two sides remain, with some signs of movement but little indication of a shift in some of the key demands that have so far blocked any truce for more than a year.

US President-elect Donald Trump has said there would be "hell to pay" in the Middle East if hostages held by Hamas were not freed before his inauguration on Jan. 20, now viewed in the region as an unofficial deadline for a truce deal.

According to Gaza health officials, nearly 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's assault on Gaza. The assault was launched after Hamas fighters stormed Israeli territory in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, by Israeli tallies.

More than 100 hostages are still believed to be held in Gaza, and Hamas says it will not free them without an agreement that ends the war with Israeli withdrawal. Israel says it will not halt its assault until Hamas is dismantled as a military and governing power and all hostages go free.

A Hamas official told Reuters the group had cleared a list submitted by Israel of 34 hostages who could be freed in the initial phase of a truce. The list provided by the official included female soldiers, plus elderly, female and minor-aged civilians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the list had been given by Israel to Qatari mediators as far back as July, and Israel had so far received no confirmation or comment from Hamas about whether the hostages on it were alive.

For Michael Levy, whose brother Or was one of the 34 names on the list, there was little comfort.

"The way I see this list is the way I saw all the recent rumors about an upcoming deal," he told Reuters. "For me, as long as my brother is not here and the hostages are not here in Israel, it's just a rumor."

BABY DIES OF COLD

Israeli forces, which have intensified their operations in recent weeks, continued bombardments across the enclave, killing at least 48 people and wounding 75 over the past 24 hours, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Harsh winter weather continued to exact a toll on the hundreds of thousands displaced into makeshift shelters, with officials saying a 35-day-old baby had died of exposure, at least the eighth victim of the cold in the past two weeks.

Officials from Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip said an Israeli airstrike at a school compound sheltering displaced families had wounded at least 40 people.

While Israel's military says Hamas has largely been destroyed as an organized military force, its fighters continue to hold out in the rubble of Gaza, which has been largely reduced to wasteland by the months of bombardment.

On Monday, two Israeli soldiers were severely wounded in northern Gaza, and three rockets were fired from Gaza, one of which hit a building in the nearby Israeli city of Sderot without casing casualties, Israeli police said.

Separately, the World Food Program said Israeli forces had opened fire on one of its convoys as the vehicles moved from central Gaza to Gaza City in the north. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a separate Palestinian territory where violence has also surged since the start of the Gaza war, gunmen killed three Israelis and wounded several others when they opened fire on a car and bus near the Israeli settlement of Kedumim.