The Israeli military will begin preparing for the forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza City, it said on Saturday, as health officials said it had killed at least 40 people including a baby in a tent and people seeking aid in its latest attacks.<\/p>\n
The announcement came days after Israel said it intended to launch a new offensive to seize control of Gaza City<\/a>, the enclave\u2019s largest urban centre, in a plan that raised international alarm. The Israeli offensive has already displaced most of the population, killed tens of thousands of civilians and created a famine<\/a>.<\/p>\n Gaza residents would be provided with tents and other shelter equipment starting from Sunday ahead of relocating them from combat zones to the south of the enclave \u201cto ensure their safety,\u201d the Israeli military claimed on Saturday. It did not say when the mass displacement would begin.<\/p>\n Israel has repeatedly bombed areas it had declared as safe zones. On Saturday a baby girl and her parents were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit a tent in al-Muwasi, previously designated a humanitarian zone by Israel<\/a>, in southern Gaza, Nasser hospital officials and witnesses said.<\/p>\n \u201cTwo and a half months, what has she done?\u201d her neighbour Fathi Shubeir asked. \u201cThey are civilians in an area designated safe.\u201d<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s military said it couldn\u2019t comment on the strike without more details.<\/p>\n A Palestinian man carries the body of his 7-year-old nephew, Alaa Al-Toum, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Friday night, during his funeral at Shifa hospital in Gaza City Saturday. Photograph: Jehad Alshrafi\/AP<\/p>\n Al-Muwasi is now one of the most heavily populated areas in Gaza after Israel pushed people into the desolate area. But prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week said Israel planned to widen its coming military offensive to include the area, along with Gaza City and \u201ccentral camps\u201d \u2013 an apparent reference to the built-up Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza.<\/p>\n According to the civil defence agency, at least 13 of the Palestinians killed on Saturday were shot by troops as they were waiting to collect food aid near distribution sites in the north and in the south.<\/p>\n There were also another 11 malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Saturday, including at least one child. That brings malnutrition-related deaths due to the Israeli blockade on aid to 251.<\/p>\n In recent days, Gaza City residents have reported more frequent air strikes<\/a> targeting residential areas especially in the east and south and including the Zeitun neighbourhood. Hamas said on Saturday the military was targeting the area with warplanes, artillery and drones.<\/p>\n Mahmoud Suhail al-Dabbeh, a 16-year-old child with cerebral palsy in Gaza City, Gaza, died of malnutrition due to Israel\u2019s blockade on aid on Saturday. After funeral procedures at al-Shifa Hospital, his body was laid to rest. Photograph: Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said conditions in Zeitun were rapidly deteriorating with residents having little to no access to food and water amid heavy Israeli bombardment.<\/p>\n He said that about 50,000 people were estimated to be in that area of Gaza City, \u201cthe majority of whom are without food or water\u201d and lacking \u201cthe basic necessities of life\u201d.<\/p>\n Ghassan Kashko, 40, who is sheltering with his family at a school building in the neighbourhood, said: \u201cWe don\u2019t know the taste of sleep.\u201d He said air strikes and tank shelling were causing \u201cexplosions… that don\u2019t stop\u201d.<\/p>\n Israel was carrying out ethnic cleansing in Zeitun, Bassal said. The Israeli military says it abides by international law though rights groups, including in Israel<\/a>, say it is committing genocide.<\/p>\n