Thousands of Palestinians flee central Gaza strip as Hamas accuses Israel of stalling ceasefire

Thousands of Palestinians have fled a community in the central Gaza Strip in the face of new Israeli evacuation orders, worsening the humanitarian plight in an area already inundated with displaced people fleeing an assault in the south.

Islamist group Hamas on Monday accused Israel of blocking a ceasefire, saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government had inserted new conditions into a longstanding truce proposal at the latest talks, conducted through international mediators.

Netanyahu, however, denied making any changes and said Hamas was the one insisting on numerous changes to the original proposal.

Israeli forces, which have now captured nearly the entire Gaza Strip in nearly 10 months of war, have spent the last several weeks launching major operations in areas where they had previously claimed to have uprooted Hamas fighters.

Hundreds of thousands of people have converged on Deir al-Balah, a small city in the centre of the enclave that is the only major area yet to be stormed, many forced there by fighting in the ruins of Khan Younis further south since last week.

In its latest assault, Israel ordered residents on Sunday to flee Al-Bureij, just northeast of Deir.

“What is left? Deir? Deir is full of people. Everyone is in Deir. All of Gaza. Where should people go?” Aya Mansour told Reuters in Deir after fleeing from Bureij.

The Israeli military said fighter jets hit 35 targets across the Gaza Strip over the past day as troops battled fighters in Khan Younis and Rafah, close to the border with Egypt. The armed wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said fierce gun battles have been ongoing in those two areas as well as in the suburb of Tel Al-Hawa in Gaza City further north.

Palestinian medical officials said at least eight people were killed in an Israeli air strike earlier in Khan Younis.

In the latest sign of a worsening public health emergency, the Gaza Health Ministry declared a polio epidemic, following the detection of the virus in sewage samples. On Sunday, the military issued new evacuation orders to some districts in Bureij, forcing thousands to leave before the army blew up several houses.

Some families used donkey carts and rickshaws to carry whatever belongings remained. Many walked for several km on foot to reach Deir or al-Zawayda town to the west.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the United Nations relief agency for Palestinians, said only 14 per cent of the Gaza Strip had not been placed under evacuation orders by the Israeli military. People have been forced to evacuate repeatedly, often with only a few hours notice.

Although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced weekly demonstrations from Israelis demanding a ceasefire to bring back more than 100 hostages still held in Gaza, there has been little visible progress in talks brokered by Qatar and Egypt.

Negotiations are set to continue after Israeli officials returned from the latest round in Rome on Sunday. Washington, which sponsors the talks, has repeatedly said a deal is close; the latest talks are over a proposal President Joe Biden unveiled back in May.

But Hamas said the latest Israeli response included new conditions.

“It is clear from what the mediators conveyed that Netanyahu has returned to his strategy of procrastination, evasion, and avoiding reaching an agreement by setting new conditions and demands,” Hamas said in a statement on Monday.

Aya Mohammad, 30, a Gaza City resident sheltering in Deir, said Gazans were losing hope in a truce: “It is all lies. I think I will die here. No one knows who is going to die first here.”