UN says movement of aid, aid workers in Gaza halted

The United Nations said Monday it had to halt the movement of aid and aid workers within Gaza due to a new Israeli evacuation order for the Deir Al-Balah area, which had become a hub for its workers.

A senior UN official had earlier said that UN operations had stopped completely within the strip, but officials later clarified that operations "in situ" and "embedded" with local populations would continue.

According to the official, the UN had relocated most of its personnel in operations to Deir Al-Balah following a Rafah evacuation order several months ago.

The Israeli military claimed on Monday it was targeting "terror operatives" in Deir Al-Balah and working to dismantle the remaining "infrastructure" of Hamas.

The Israeli military has told people to evacuate immediately.

According to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, 15 premises hosting UN and NGO aid workers and four UN warehouses were affected, being either in or near the area ordered to evacuate.

After it appeared that the UN had shut down its Gaza operations, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for Secretary-General António Guterres, clarified that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees was continuing operations, although under restrictions.

"What our senior UN official was referring to is UN officials and UN humanitarian staff moving about," he said.

"If humanitarian workers are embedded with a certain population in a certain area, they have the tools to operate and to share and to distribute."

"They will do so," he added, though warning that it would be "half a drop in a barrel".

Sam Rose, senior deputy field director for UNRWA in Gaza, added that "health services continue across eight or nine primary healthcare centers and over 90 health points".

"But indeed, the space and the ability of the UN system, of the humanitarian system to operate in Gaza is becoming increasingly difficult," Rose added.

Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 40,435 people, according to the Palestinian enclave's health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

A Hamas-led 7 October attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.