Israel has designated a small slice of mostly undeveloped land along Gaza's Mediterranean coast as a safe zone, a place where waves of people fleeing the war can find protection from airstrikes and receive humanitarian supplies for their families (Pics/AFP)
Updated On: 2023-12-08 02:13 PM IST
Compiled by : ronak mastakar
The area of Muwasi is a makeshift tent camp where thousands of dazed Palestinians live in squalid conditions in scattered farm fields and waterlogged dirt roads. Their numbers have swelled in recent days as people flee an Israeli military offensive in nearby areas of the southern Gaza Strip
Roughly 20 square kilometres in southwest Gaza, Muwasi lies at the heart of a heated battle between Israel and international humanitarian organizations over the safety of the territory's civilians
Israel has offered Muwasi as a solution for protecting people uprooted from their homes and seeking safety from the heavy fighting between its troops and Hamas militants. The United Nations and relief groups say Muwasi is a poorly planned attempt to impose a solution for people who have been displaced and offers no guarantee of safety in a territory where people have faced the dangers of continued airstrikes in other areas where the army ordered them to go
"How can a zone be safe in a warzone if it is only unilaterally decided by one part of the conflict," said Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA
The area has no running water or bathrooms, assistance and international humanitarian groups are nowhere to be found, and the tents provide little protection from the coming winter's cool, rainy weather
UNRWA and other international aid organisations do not recognise the camp and are not providing services there
Yet Muwasi is poised to play an increasingly important role in the protection of Gaza's civilians. Some three-quarters of the territory's 2.3 million people have been displaced, in some cases multiple times, since Israel launched its war in response to an October 7 cross-border attack by Gaza's Hamas rulers that left some 1,200 dead
Hundreds of thousands of people relocated to southern Gaza from the north after Israeli ground troops entered the area. Now, as Israel widens its ground offensive to the south, tens of thousands of people have found themselves on the move yet again with few safe places to go
Israel first mentioned Muwasi as a humanitarian zone in late October. It's not clear how many people Israel believes can live there, and it blames the United Nations for the poor conditions
