The UN aid coordination office, OCHA, has warned that the plight of Gaza’s people continues to worsen in the enclave where humanitarian operations are feasible amid repeated evacuation orders from the Israeli military.

OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke, in a statement on Tuesday, rejected any suggestion to stop the lifesaving aid operation.

This is despite the multiple challenges linked to the war and ongoing fighting sparked by Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel on October 7.

Mr Laerke said 16 evacuation orders had been issued for August alone, creating upheaval for Gazans already uprooted multiple times. The same orders have also encompassed the UN’s aid hub in the central city of Deir Al-Balah.

Previously, the UN and partners’ main humanitarian response had been based in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, close to Egypt.

However, the Israeli military operation that began there in early May resulted in an exodus of almost all of those sheltering in and around Rafah to the continually shrinking humanitarian zone at the coast.

According to OCHA, since last Friday, the Israeli military has issued three new evacuation orders for over 19 neighbourhoods in northern Gaza and in Deir Al-Balah. More than 8,000 people sheltering in these areas have been impacted.

Mr Laerke said there was a particular concern about the evacuation order issued on Sunday affecting part of Deir Al-Balah used by humanitarians.

According to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, ongoing military operations in Deir Al-Balah have left only three of the area’s 18 water wells still functioning.

Apart from the daily challenge of securing water and food in the enclave, the UN health agency insisted on the urgent need to conduct a polio vaccination campaign.

Some 1.2 million vaccines have reached the enclave in coordination with the Israeli authorities.

Ninety-five per cent of children under 10 years old need to be vaccinated for the campaign to be successful. The virus was discovered in sewage water there in June.

Last week, one case of polio was confirmed in Gaza, contracted by a 10-month-old child who developed paralysis in one of their legs. It was the first such case of polio in 25 years, according to the UN World Health Organisation.

Gazans have faced repeated displacement in the past 10 months of war.

Gazans have been repeatedly forcibly displaced in the past 10 months of conflict to an ever-shrinking humanitarian zone.

(NAN)