UN determined to stay in Gaza: Official

NEW YORK: Evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military have impacted the safety of humanitarians delivering aid in the Gaza Strip, the head of the UN's Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) said on Tuesday. 'Mass evacuation orders are the latest in a long list of unbearable threats to UN and humanitarian personnel,' Under-Secretary-General Gilles Michaud said in a statement. Michaud underlined the UN's determination to stay in Gaza, where life-saving aid continues to be distributed, which he called 'a tremendous feat given that we are operating at the upper-most peripheries of tolerable risk.' He said this past weekend, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) gave the UN just a few hours' notice to move more than 200 personnel out of their offices and living spaces in Deir Al-Balah, a crucial humanitarian hub. 'Like most Palestinians in Gaza, we are running out of safe spaces for our own staff,' he said. Furthermore, 'the timing could hardly be worse,' he added, as UN agencies are set to begin the massi ve polio vaccination campaign next week, which requires large numbers of staff to enter the enclave. Source: Emirates News Agency