The United Nations says that Israel’s plan to transport the Palestinians to southern Gaza will increase suffering

The Israeli army said on Saturday that Gaza residents will be provided with tents and other shelter equipment on Sunday before they were transferred from the combat areas to the south “to ensure their safety.”

This comes days after Israel said it aims to launch a new attack to control northern Gaza City, the largest urban center in the pocket, in a plan that sparked an international warning about the fate of the strip that was demolished, home to about 2.2 million people.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last Sunday that before the attack, the civilian population will be evacuated to what he described as “safe areas” of Gaza City, which was called the last Hamas stronghold.

The army said that shelter equipment will be transported through the Karim Shalom crossing in southern Gaza by the United Nations and other international relief organizations after being searched by members of the Ministry of Defense.

A spokesman for the United Nations Coordination Office of Humanitarian Affairs expressed concern about Israel’s plans to transfer people to southern Gaza, saying it would increase suffering.

But the United Nations body welcomed Israel’s recognition that shelter is an urgent need and that tents and other shelter equipment will be allowed again in Gaza. “The United Nations and its partners will take the opportunity to open this,” the spokesman said.

On Thursday, the United Nations warned that thousands of families have already bearing the horrific humanitarian conditions can be pushed on the edge if the Gaza City plan advanced forward.

Palestinian and United Nations officials said there is no place in the pocket safe, including areas in southern Gaza, where Israel was asking the population to move to it.

The army refused to comment when asked whether shelter equipment was intended for the residents of Gaza City, which is estimated at about one million people at the present time, and whether the site to which they will be transferred in southern Gaza will be the field of Rafah, which borders Egypt.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that the new attack plans were still in formulation.

The Palestinian armed faction, Islamic Jihad, who is an ally of Hamas, said that the army’s declaration “as part of its brutal attack on the occupation of Gaza City is a blatant and rude mockery of international agreements.”

However, the Israeli forces have already increased the operations on the outskirts of Gaza City during the past week. Residents in olive neighborhoods and Shihia have reported an air fire and heavy Israeli tanks.

The population there also had explosions throughout the day, resulting from the bombing of Israeli tanks against homes in the eastern parts of the neighborhood.

The Israeli army said on Friday that it had started a new olive operation to locate explosives, destroy tunnels, and kill militants in the area.

The ceasefire negotiations stopped

The war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to the Israeli authorities, and 20 of 50 hostages in Gaza are still alive.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza says that the subsequent military attack of Israel against Hamas has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians. It also caused a hunger crisis, internally explained most of the Gaza population and left a large part of the pocket in a ruin.

The protests were expected to call for hostages and end of the war throughout Israel on Sunday, as many companies, municipalities and universities say they would support the amazing employees for this day.

The negotiations ended to secure the ceasefire for 60 days, supported by the United States, and the release of the hostages on a dead end last month, and the Egyptian mediators tried to revive them.