Middle East live blog: ++ Israel orders new evacuations in Gaza ++

The Israeli military has ordered new evacuations for parts of Gaza City. Several UN organizations have raised the alarm about the situation of children in the Gaza Strip. The events in the live blog.

The Israeli military has ordered new evacuations for parts of Gaza city. The instructions applied to the Saitun and Turkoman districts on the southern edge of the city, the armed forces said. The orders were an indication that Palestinian militants are still putting up fierce resistance in areas of the northern Gaza Strip that the military said were largely cleared weeks ago.

Residents reported airstrikes and heavy ground fighting in the eastern parts of Gaza over the past two days. “The situation is very difficult,” said Aiman ​​Abu Awad, who lives in Saitun. “We are trapped in our homes.”

Before the start of the EU mission to protect merchant ships from attacks by the Houthi militia in Yemen, Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) emphasized the “defensive mission” of the operation. It’s “all about defense against attacks from missiles, drones and other things,” said Pistorius in the joint morning magazine ARD and ZDF. Attacks on the mainland are not planned. The operation “should not be confused with the joint mission that the Americans and the British have given each other,” said Pistorius.

NATO partners are also shelling Houthi positions on land as part of their “Poseidon Archer” mission. Pistorius further explained that the operation on the Red Sea, in which the “Hesse” will be involved together with five other ships from EU countries, is “about the freedom of trade (…) and the safety of the ships on the most important trade route between Asia and Europe” as well as the safety of international shipping as a whole.

The Israeli military says it has continued its attacks against the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The army said in ongoing “intensive operations” in the west of the city of Khan Yunis in the south of the coastal area, which has been hotly contested for weeks, dozens of terrorist militia fighters have been killed in the past 24 hours. A large weapons depot in the city was also hit. Terrorists were also killed in the center of the sealed-off Gaza Strip over the past day. All information provided by the military could not initially be independently verified.

Shortly before the dangerous deployment of the frigate “Hessen” in the Red Sea, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius visited the approximately 240 soldiers on board on Tuesday. The minister flew to Crete on Monday evening, where the 143 meter long warship is currently making a stopover on the way from Wilhelmshaven to the operational area. If the Bundestag approves the mission on Friday, as expected, the “Hessen” will enter the Red Sea from the Egyptian Suez Canal immediately afterwards.

Several UN organizations have raised the alarm about the situation of children in the Gaza Strip. The lack of food, increasing malnutrition and the rapid spread of disease could lead to a massive increase in deaths, said the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN children’s agency UNICEF and the World Food Program (WFP).

“The Gaza Strip is on the verge of an explosion in preventable child deaths that would worsen the already intolerable levels of child mortality in the Gaza Strip,” said UNICEF representative Ted Chaiban.

The United States has introduced a new draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council that aims to “establish a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip as soon as possible.” The draft states that “under the current circumstances, a major ground offensive in Rafah would result in further harm to civilians and their further displacement, possibly including to neighboring countries.

“Such a ground offensive should therefore not be carried out under the current circumstances,” says the paper, which is available to the Reuters news agency. When and whether the draft resolution will be voted on is still unclear.

From the embattled Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, 14 seriously ill patients have been taken to other hospitals in the area. EU foreign ministers warn Israel against launching an offensive in Rafah. Monday’s live blog for reading.