Gaza residents stay in areas at risk of Israeli attack due to overcrowding in safe zones

Thousands of people facing Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have been forced to abandon plans to comply with Israeli evacuation orders telling them to move to a designated "safe humanitarian zone" because there is no space for them there.

- Jason Burke, Malak A Tantesh

At the weekend the Israeli military told residents of multiple neighbourhoods in and around the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah to leave their homes ahead of planned attacks and go to the narrow strip of coast around the small town of al-Mawasi that was designated earlier in the war to receive displaced people.

A 34-year-old woman who has been living with 16 relatives on the edge of the designated safe area, who did not want to be named, said: "My uncles and father tried to find a new safer place to move our family to but their efforts did not succeed yet as all spaces within the safe zone are occupied." Humanitarian officials confirmed the overcrowding in the humanitarian zone was dissuading those given evacuation orders by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from leaving despite the dangers of remaining.

A UN official based in Gaza said: "There's just no space and people know that, so they stay where they are. You can't get hold of tents, so even if you found somewhere, it would be difficult to get any shelter, and conditions there are terrible.