Palestinians in Gaza flee after new Israeli evacuation order

The United Nations has been forced to temporarily stop its humanitarian aid operations in Gaza as a result of new evacuation orders for the central city of Deir al-Balah, a senior UN official said.

"We're unable to deliver today with the conditions that we're in," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was cited by Reuters as saying. "As of this morning, we're not operating in Gaza."

"We're trying to balance the need of the population with the need for safety and security of the UN personnel," the official added.

Israel has issued a series of evacuation notices for the Gaza Strip since the war with Hamas militants began in October last year. Much of the territory's 2.3 million people have fled their homes as a result.

The UN relocated its main command operations for Gaza and most of its UN staff there to Deir al-Balah after Israel ordered the evacuation of the southern city of Rafah, the UN official told Reuters. 

"Where do we move now?" the official said. "The space to operate is being restricted more and more than ever."

The World Food Program has warned that its activities in Gaza are being "severely hampered" by the war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Palestinian territory.

In a statement on Monday, the UN agency said that in July and August, it was only able to deliver around half of the 24,000 metric tons of food aid for operations serving 1.1 million people.

It blamed the "intensifying conflict, the limited number of border crossings and damaged roads" for the slump in deliveries.

"We won't be able to bring food to the people of Gaza unless urgent repairs are done on these roads," the agency's Antoine Renard said. 

"Transporting food, water, medicine, and hygiene equipment is critical for the survival of communities in Gaza today and will be needed for months to come. Roads are part of this lifeline."

Earlier this year, a global hunger monitor, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), said Gaza was at "high risk" of famine, with almost half a million people there facing "catastrophic" food insecurity.

Thousands of residents in the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza have been leaving their homes following new evacuation orders from Israel.

The orders also prompted patients to flee Deir al-Balah's Al-Aqsa hospital, one of the few medical facilities still functioning in the territory.

In a statement posted on X, the Israeli military advised people in certain zones to move immediately to the west so that its forces could target Hamas militants operating in the area, which it called a "dangerous combat zone."

The Al-Aqsa hospital was excluded from the latest orders, and Israel said it had informed Palestinian health officials that health facilities did not need to be evacuated. But patients and people sheltering there have been streaming out of the complex over fears the site could be engulfed in fighting.

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, said an explosion around 250 meters (820 feet) from the hospital on Sunday caused panic.

"As a result, MSF is considering whether to suspend wound care for the time being, while trying to maintain life-saving treatment," it said on X.

The hospital says it was treating over 600 patients before the evacuation orders. Around 100 remain, including seven patients in intensive care and eight in the children's ward.

"This situation is unacceptable. Al-Aqsa has been operating well beyond capacity for weeks due to the lack of alternatives for patients. All warring parties must respect the hospital, as well as patients' access to medical care," MSF said.

The EU Red Sea naval mission Aspides said on Monday that the Sounion oil tanker ship which has been on fire since August 23 has no signs of an oil spill.

The ship was however still ablaze, it said.

"All vessels in the area must exercise extreme caution, as the MV SOUNION is both a navigational and an imminent environmental hazard. This situation underlines that these kinds of attacks pose not only a threat against the freedom of navigation but also to the lives of seafarers, the environment, and subsequently the life of all citizens living in that region," the mission said in a post on X.

The ship, which bears a Greek flag, was attacked in the Red Sea by Houthis from Yemen, who confirmed the attack on Thursday.

 
Aspides said fires were observed on at least five locations of the main deck of the ship, and part of the superstructure was also on fire. They also shared photos showing smoke coming off the ship's main deck from Sunday.

On Saturday, the US had warned of a potential environmental disaster, saying the tanker could spill a "million barrels" of oil into the sea. The crew consisting of 23 Filipinos and two Russians has been rescued by Aspides. 

The Iran-backed Houthis have been launching attacks on ships in the region for several months, claiming that it is a reaction to Israel's military action in Gaza. 

Cease-fire talks will continue at a lower level in Cairo on Monday following higher-level talks over the weekend without a major breakthrough.

A US official, speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said the weekend negotiations concluded without a final agreement in place.

The official said lower level "working teams" would stay in the Egyptian capital to meet with mediators the United States, Qatar, and hosts Egypt in the hopes of addressing the key issues. The official called the recent conversations, which began Thursday and continued through Sunday, "constructive" and said all parties were working steadfastly to "reach a final and implementable agreement."

"The process will continue over the coming days through working groups to further address remaining issues and details," the official added.

The discussions included CIA director William Burns and David Barnea, the head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency. A Hamas delegation was briefed by Egyptian and Qatari mediators but did not directly attend the negotiations.

Hamas is deemed a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

Polio vaccines for more than 1 million people have been delivered to Gaza, Israel's military said, after the first confirmed case of the disease in the territory in a quarter-century.

The case in a baby was reported last week and the batch of vaccines has been transported to the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom border crossing, according to the Israeli authority responsible for Palestinian affairs, COGAT. 

"In the coming days, international and local medical teams will vaccinate children who have not yet been vaccinated against polio at various locations in the Gaza Strip," the statement said. 

UN representatives have been calling for a cease-fire to allow polio vaccinations for hundreds of thousands of children in the war zone.