Evacuation notice issued for part of Deir al-Balah for first time in warpublished at 12:47 British Summer Time
Benedict Garman
BBC Verify senior journalist
On Sunday an evacuation notice was issued by the Israeli military for parts of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. This is the first time in the 21-month war these neighbourhoods have been told to evacuate.
This latest notice means that more than 301sq km (about 84%) of Gaza is now affected by evacuation orders since the ceasefire ended in March. This includes the entirety of North Gaza and the Rafah region in the south.
The notice affecting Deir al-Balah, external separates nearby al-Mawasi from the rest of the Gaza Strip, reverting this area to a small isolated section much like the original designated ‘humanitarian zone’ that existed prior to May last year.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates between 50,000 and 80,000 people were in the evacuation area at the time the order was issued. Within hours, the IDF launched a ground and air assault.
The BBC’s Gaza correspondent Rushdi Abualouf writes that there are growing fears among local residents that the latest military push could be part of an effort to carve out a new corridor that would isolate Deir al-Balah from the surrounding central Gaza region.
Throughout the war, the Israeli military has issued evacuation notices advising people living there to leave areas where military activity is imminent.
We’ve been logging and mapping these orders to track which areas of Gaza are deemed particularly high risk danger zones.
