DUBAI, August 21. /TASS/. Orders by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on evacuating civilians in the Gaza Strip in August affected about 213,000 Palestinians, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) reported.

"Around 213,000 Palestinians have been affected by nine evacuation orders since the beginning of August," it said in a statement published on its website.

According to the agency, "the population is increasingly concentrated within the Israeli-designated zone in Al Mawasi, which continues to shrink and the density in this area has surged to an estimated 30,000 to 34,000 people per square kilometer compared to an estimated 1,200 people per square kilometer before October 2023." The organization points out that "this reduction in space, combined with overcrowding, heightened insecurity, inadequate and overstretched infrastructure, ongoing hostilities, and limited services is exacerbating the dire humanitarian situation for the hundreds of thousands of people forced to live inside it."

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza-based Palestinian radical group Hamas staged a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel has declared a state of war readiness; announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians; and began delivering air strikes on the enclave and certain parts of Lebanon and Syria, followed by a ground operation in the enclave. Clashes are underway in the West Bank as well.

At the end of November 2023, Hamas reported reaching an agreement with Israel, mediated by Qatar and Egypt, on a humanitarian truce which lasted a week. Israel managed to liberate 110 hostages during this time. On December 1, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire and announced renewed fighting in the Gaza Strip, which continues to this day.