Despite Israel's evacuation orders & threat of ground invasion, 360,000 Palestinians still living in north Gaza

Over 350,000 Palestinians are still living in northern Gaza despite Israel’s warning that they might face ‘grave danger’ if they do not evacuate and move south.

Israel has escalated attacks across the Gaza Strip, including southern Gaza where it asked people to take shelter ahead of a possible ground invasion. Therefore, many Palestinians who refuse to leave north Gaza say it makes little sense to move south considering Israel’s attacks in southern Gaza.

Some say that fleeing from north Gaza would land them in overcrowded shelters amid a shortage of food, water and other basic necessities.

Since telling Gazans to head south, the Israeli military (IDF) has continued to pound targets across the area, killing an unknown number of civilians.

Residents said the bombardment of the south intensified on October 25. One strike brought down several apartment buildings in Khan Younis, some 10 km (6 miles) from the Egyptian border.

Overcrowding in UN shelters

The United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said that the shelters established by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza are at risk of overcrowding.

In a statement on Thursday, OCHA said, “Overcrowding conditions are severely constraining access to basic assistance and essential services, increasing health and protection risks, and negatively affecting mental health.”

It added that over 629,000 displaced people are currently living in UNRWA shelters out of a total of 1.4 million people who have been unsettled since October 7.

With inputs from Reuters