How Israel is shrinking Gaza’s ‘safe zones’

As of Monday, 83 percent of the Gaza Strip has been marked unsafe for Palestinian civilians by the Israeli military.

This big chunk of the beleaguered enclave has either been designated as a “no-go zone” by Israel or people there have been issued evacuation orders, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

While the remaining 17 percent is not subject to evacuation orders, residents in Gaza say no place is safe as Israeli attacks throughout the Strip have continued for more than nine months. More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed.

Since the beginning of Israel’s most recent assault on October 7, almost all Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced from their homes, some even multiple times.

Entire neighbourhoods in northern Gaza, where Israel’s offence began, have been destroyed. So-called ‘safe zones’ in southern Gaza continue to shrink and deteriorate.