Speaking to BBC, James Elder, who is currently in Gaza, said the areas Israel has asked Palestinians to evacuate to are “patches of barren land” that have “no water, no facilities, no shelter from the cold, no sanitation”.
Elder also added that Israeli-made maps with QR codes purportedly showing these “safe areas” won’t be accessible to many people due to internet and power outages.
“If you are going to forcibly evacuate people you cannot send hundreds of thousands of people to places where there is no water and no toilets. I genuinely mean no toilets. Every corner I had turned to, there were another 5,000 people who would appear overnight. They don’t have a single toilet, they don’t have a drop of water,” Elder told BBC.
“The only safety in Gaza now is for hell to stop raining down from the sky,” he continued.
At least 15,900 people have died in Gaza since October 7, Palestinian health officials have confirmed, adding that more than 6,000 of these are children and that hundreds of medical personnel have also died as a result of Israeli artillery, airstrikes or ground offensives.
