Overview

• Israel designated Gaza City a dangerous combat zone and is preparing to seize it, but stopped short of ordering an immediate evacuation.
• The Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesman said an evacuation of the city is “inevitable.”
• The ICRC says mass displacement cannot be conducted safely or with dignity because destruction and severe shortages leave no area able to absorb the movement.
• Citing international humanitarian law, the ICRC says authorities must ensure shelter, hygiene, health, safety and nutrition, conditions it says do not exist, and notes many residents are too sick, injured or disabled to move.
• The Red Cross called for an immediate ceasefire, large-scale aid access and the release of remaining Israeli hostages, as the UN reports famine and nearly a million people in the Gaza governorate.