Red Cross warns against evacuation of Gaza City as ‘Israel’ tightens siege

The Red Cross warned that any ‘Israeli’ attempt to evacuate Gaza City would put residents at risk, as ‘Israel's’ military tightened its siege on the area ahead of a planned offensive.

Gaza's civil defence agency said that since dawn ‘Israeli’ attacks had killed 66 people in the territory already devastated by nearly 23 months of aggression.

Read more: 'Israeli' army reports death of reservist in southern Gaza fighting

"It is impossible that a mass evacuation of Gaza City could ever be done in a way that is safe and dignified under the current conditions," International Committee of the Red Cross President Mirjana Spoljaric said in a statement.

The dire state of shelter, healthcare and nutrition in Gaza meant evacuation was "not only unfeasible but incomprehensible under the present circumstances".

‘Israel’ is under increasing pressure to end its offensive in Gaza where the great majority of the population has been displaced at least once and the United Nations has declared a famine.

But despite the calls at home and abroad for an end to the war, the ‘Israeli’ army is readying itself for an operation to seize the Palestinian territory's largest city and relocate its inhabitants.

On Saturday, at a rally in Tel Aviv demanding the negotiated release of the remaining ‘Israeli’ captives held in Gaza, captives' families warned the impending offensive could imperil their lives.

The ‘Israeli’ military has declared Gaza City a "dangerous combat zone", without the daily pauses in fighting that have allowed limited food deliveries elsewhere.

The military did not call for the population to leave immediately, but a day earlier COGAT, the ‘Israeli’ defence ministry body that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said it was making preparations "for moving the population southward for their protection".