 "Over 50,000 Palestinians fled northern Gaza via corridors set up by Israel: UN")
Over 50,000 Palestinians have fled northern Gaza to move south after Israel arranged the opening of humanitarian corridors, the UN Office for the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says. On the sixth consecutive day in which IDF opened the humanitarian corridors for civilians in Gaza, 50,000 Palestinians evacuated northern Gaza in the course of seven hours. “Hundreds of thousands of people remaining in the north [of Gaza] are struggling to secure the minimum amounts of water and food to survive,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement. Meanwhile, an unconfirmed number of foreign nations left the Gaza Strip on Thursday via the Rafah Border Crossing. On Thursday, Israel also announced the pause of military operations for four hours a day along two corridors to allow civilians to evacuate safely, State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters at a regular press briefing, adding that development was a direct result of diplomacy by US officials.
The Israeli military said it had not agreed to a ceasefire and would continue its operations outside of localized humanitarian pauses.
Patel said those fleeing their homes should have the ability to return, but said Washington does not have control or jurisdiction over the areas in question.
“We do not, as a matter of fundamental principle, support or wish to see displacement of Gaza’s population,” US Special Envoy for Middle East Humanitarian Issues David Satterfield said in an earlier online briefing.
“Those now in the south must have every ability to return to the north when that is safe to do.”
With inputs from Reuters