Palestinians forced into 'another hellscape' as Israel forces Gaza City displacement

Israeli air strikes hit the evacuated Al-Ghefari tower in Gaza City. (Photo/Reuters)

The forced displacement of families from Gaza City is "inhumane" for the most vulnerable, as they are being pushed from one "hellscape" to another, a UNICEF official has said.

"It is inhumane to expect nearly half a million children battered and traumatised by over 700 days of unrelenting conflict to flee one hellscape to end up in another," Tess Ingram, the UNICEF communication manager for the Middle East, told a UN press briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.

Her remarks came as the Israeli military stepped up its ground offensive in Gaza City, ordering residents to leave the area.

She recalled meeting Isra, a mother of five whose two youngest children walked barefoot as the family walked more than six hours from Gaza City to the south, pushing a trailer of belongings.

"They were walking into the unknown, with little hope of finding solace," she added.

Displaced families are being directed into a so-called humanitarian zone in Al Mawasi and surrounding areas, which Ingram called "a sea of makeshift tents, human despair and insufficient supplies."

At the same time, malnutrition is surging.

UNICEF estimates 26,000 children in Gaza require treatment for acute malnutrition, including more than 10,000 in Gaza City alone.

"In August, more than one in eight children screened across Gaza were acutely malnourished, the highest level we've ever recorded," she said, adding that in Gaza City the figure was one in five.

But as needs escalate, services are collapsing.

Sixteen nutrition centres shut this week due to evacuation orders and Israeli escalation, cutting off a third of the remaining treatment sites, she noted.

Gaza City endured one of its bloodiest nights on Monday, with 35 people killed and dozens wounded or missing as Israeli forces also deployed explosive-laden robots to demolish homes.

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Source: TRT