UN human rights office says Israel plans to widen its military zone in Gaza to 70 per cent and calls repeated displacement a “nightmare”

The UN human rights office (OHCHR) warned on Friday 30 October that Israeli forces are pushing Palestinians into ever-smaller areas of the Gaza Strip, saying Israel has stated that it aims to enlarge the area of its military deployment to 70 per cent of Gaza’s territory.

OHCHR said the shrinking space has caused fresh displacement in areas next to the “yellow line”, the demarcation boundary that divides the Israeli-controlled zone from the rest of the Strip. According to its monitoring, over the past two weeks the Israeli deployment areas expanded westward in Al Shujaiyeh in Gaza City and in three places in Middle Gaza: eastern Al Bureij, eastern Deir Al-Balah and eastern Al Maghazi.

Where the deployment zone is growing

In Al Shujaiyeh, the office said, it received reports of at least two Israeli attacks on displacement camps, and that forces used explosive robots to detonate the few buildings still standing there. It also cited a report that on 25 October an Israeli drone dropped munitions on tents sheltering displaced families at Al Shujaiyeh junction, near the yellow line, and that the resulting fire burned for five hours. The Palestinian Ministry of Public Works and Housing told the UN that 200 families, about 800 people, mostly women, children and older people, were displaced as a result.

OHCHR also said Israeli forces appear to treat the yellow line as a “kill zone”, preventing Palestinians from returning to what is left of their homes on the other side, and that restrictions on shelter materials entering Gaza are making the displacement crisis worse.

“The nightmare of displacement”

“The nightmare of displacement in Gaza is both acute and chronic,” said Ajith Sunghay, head of UN Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. He said those displaced before the announcement of the ceasefire have little to no prospect of return to areas now beyond the yellow line, and that they “continue to be displaced again and again”. “This is the fourth year of displacement for most Palestinians in Gaza,” he added, calling it the fourth winter in tents too flimsy to withstand rain. “Let this be the last.”

The office stated that, as an occupying power, Israel must stop the forcible transfer of Palestinians within the Gaza Strip, which it described as a war crime that may also amount to a crime against humanity, and must allow people a safe and dignified return to the areas they fled. These are OHCHR’s legal assessments; the statement relayed by UN News carries no Israeli response, and Geopolitiki has not found one in an official Israeli source.

The warning follows Geopolitiki’s report on Israeli strikes in Maghazi and al-Mawasi and the Health Ministry’s call to open the Rafah crossing: Gaza: Israeli strikes kill civilians in Maghazi and al-Mawasi as the Health Ministry presses for the Rafah crossing to open. Winter shelter is a growing concern: aid agencies have repeatedly said tents cannot withstand the rain and cold.