GAZA CITY, Palestine: Western countries, including the UK, France, Australia, and Canada, on Monday called for an immediate end to the war in Gaza, warning that civilian suffering has reached “new depths” as Israel’s military expanded its operations to the central city of Deir el-Balah.
After more than 21 months of bombardment campaign that has triggered a catastrophic humanitarian crisis for Gaza’s more than two million people, Israeli allies Britain, France, Australia, Canada and 21 other countries, plus the EU, said in a joint statement that the war “must end now”.
“The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths,” the signatories added, urging a negotiated ceasefire, the release of hostages held by Palestinian group Hamas and the free flow of much-needed aid.
The plea came as Deir el-Balah came under intense Israeli shelling on Monday, after the military warned of imminent action in an area where it had not previously operated.
The military a day earlier, had ordered those in the central Gaza area to leave immediately as it was expanding operations, including “in an area where it has not operated before”.
Between 50,000 and 80,000 people were in the area when the evacuation order was issued, according to initial estimates from the UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA.
Evacuation orders
In their statement, the Western countries also denounced Israel’s aid delivery model in Gaza, saying it was “dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity”.
The UN has recorded 875 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food since late May, when Israel began easing a more than two-month aid blockade.
“We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food,” the statement said.
The spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence agency, Mahmud Bassal, said that “we received calls from several families trapped in the Al-Baraka area of Deir el-Balah due to shelling by Israeli tanks”.
The Israeli military did not provide immediate comment when contacted, AFP reported.
Since the start of the war, nearly all of Gaza’s population has been displaced at least once by repeated Israeli evacuation orders.
According to OCHA, the latest order means that 87.8 percent of the territory is now under evacuation orders or within Israeli militarised zones.
Mai Elawawda, communications officer in Gaza for the UK-based charity Medical Aid for Palestinians, said the situation was “extremely critical”, describing shelling “all around our office, and military vehicles are just 400 metres (1,300 feet) away from our colleagues and their families”.
‘Shocked and alarmed’
The families of hostages held in Gaza since Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war said they were “shocked and alarmed” by reports of evacuation orders for parts of Deir el-Balah.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum demanded political and military authorities “to clearly explain why the offensive in the Deir el-Balah area does not put the hostages at serious risk”.
Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s attack on Israel, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Civil defence spokesman Bassal reported at least 15 people killed by Israeli forces across Gaza on Monday.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,029 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the territory.
