Ethnic cleansing fears rise as Israel squeezes space in Gaza: UN

What the report says

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has warned that Israeli forces in Gaza are pushing Palestinians into an ever-smaller area and that their actions are intensifying fears of ethnic cleansing, according to Al Jazeera. The UN rights office said the Israeli military has been moving beyond its deployment boundary, known as the “Yellow Line,” and appears to treat that line as a lethal exclusion zone, blocking people from returning to areas on the other side.

Al Jazeera reported that the OHCHR documented westward military advances over the previous two weeks, including in Shujayea in Gaza City and in parts of central Gaza such as eastern Bureij, eastern Deir el-Balah and eastern al-Maghazi. The agency said this has triggered fresh displacement and that remaining civilian structures and displacement sites have come under attack. It also cited reports of strikes on tents sheltering displaced people, including an incident in Shujayea that the Gaza housing ministry said left hundreds of families uprooted.

The UN statement said the pattern of repeated displacement is leaving many Palestinians with little chance of returning to homes they fled earlier in the conflict. Al Jazeera noted that the wider war has continued despite a ceasefire framework, and that Gaza’s health authorities say casualties have remained high since the truce began. The reporting underscores how boundary shifts, shelter strikes and limited access are compounding the humanitarian crisis in the enclave.