Israel’s military said today it was not seeking to force Palestinians to flee to Egypt, but acknowledged the “difficult” situation they face in the besieged Gaza Strip.

“We’re not looking to remove people down there,” Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus told reporters.

“Egypt has been absolutely clear on the matter: it does not want it,” he added. “We’re not looking to displace the population permanently,” Conricus emphasized.

“We have asked civilians to move away from the battlefield and we have designated a specific humanitarian zone inside the Gaza Strip,” he explained, referring to the al-Mawasi coastal area.

“We know very well that space and access are limited and that is why it is critical to get the support of international humanitarian organizations to help build infrastructure in the al-Mawasi area,” added the IDF spokesman.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk expressed concern over the weekend that hundreds of thousands of Gazans are being “restricted to smaller and smaller areas” in the southern Palestinian enclave. “There is no safe place in Gaza,” he had estimated.

The Hamas Health Ministry announced yesterday, Sunday, that 15,523 people have been killed since the start of the Israeli bombardment, of which 70% are women and children.

The war began on October 7 after Hamas attacked Israel, which claimed the lives of 1,200 people.

After last week’s collapse of the ceasefire, Israel has expanded its operations in Gaza, which is causing growing concern in the international community.

According to the latest UN calculations, approx 1.8 million people in Gaza, about 75% of the population, have been displaced.

Egypt, which borders the Palestinian enclave, rejects the idea of ​​a mass movement of Palestinians into its territory. After all, the Arab countries are also against the movement of the Palestinians. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has stated that “people should be able to stay in Gaza, in their homes.”

The war that led to Israel’s founding 75 years ago forced the displacement of 760,000 Palestinians, an event known as the Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe.