Israel flouting international law with forced evacuations in Gaza, UN says

The U.N. Human Rights Office accused Israel on Friday of violating international law by forcibly displacing Palestinians in Gaza under "mandatory evacuation orders".

The Israeli army has issued what the U.N. described as 10 mandatory evacuation orders, covering large areas across Gaza, since it resumed its war against Hamas on March 18, ending a two-month-old ceasefire amid rows over terms for extending it.

"These evacuations fail to comply with the requirements of international humanitarian law," U.N. human rights spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said in a statement on Friday.

Israel's permanent mission to Geneva told Reuters that it was operating in accordance with international humanitarian law.

"Israel is evacuating civilians to protect them from Hamas terrorists, who relentlessly use them as human shields in a blatant violation of international law," the mission said in a statement. It also accused Hamas of dragging on the war by refusing to release the remaining hostages held in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister have been indicted alongside Hamas leaders by the International Criminal Court in The Hague on war crimes charges, which Israel rejects.

"Israel is not taking any measures to provide accommodation for the evacuated population, nor ensure that these evacuations are conducted in satisfactory conditions of hygiene, health, safety and nutrition," Al-Kheetan's statement added.

More than half of northern Gaza appeared to be under such orders, it said, while those who had been newly displaced from the south of the enclave in the Rafah area and forced to go to coastal Al Mawasi were not guaranteed safety there.

"We are deeply concerned about the shrinking space for civilians in Gaza who are being forcibly displaced by the Israeli army from large swathes of territory," it added.

Since Israeli airstrikes resumed on March 18, at least 855 Palestinians have been killed and 1,869 wounded, according to the U.N., which cited figures from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.