GAZA – Nearly 2 million people have been displaced in Gaza – almost the entire population – after the Israeli military last week ordered a further 80,000 people to evacuate parts of Gaza City amid a renewed ground operation, latest UN figures show.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has stepped up assaults in several parts of the Strip, including the Shujaya neighborhood in the north, where it previously said it had dismantled Hamas. UNRWA, the main UN agency for Palestinian refugees, estimates that up to 1.9 million people in Gaza have been internally displaced – about 90% of the population of the Strip, estimated by the UN to be around 2.1 million people. The number of displaced people rose from 1.7 million since Israel launched its offensive on the southern city of Rafah in May.

The fresh flurry of offensives raises questions about how and when Israel will wind down its war, which has been fought for nearly nine months with the aims of destroying Hamas’ military and governing capacities and rescuing Israeli hostages. Israeli officials had said its incursion into Rafah – the southernmost point of Gaza to which Hamas was thought to have regrouped after Israel’s destruction of the north – would be the final stage of its war, but the uptick in fighting in the north suggests Hamas retains an ongoing presence.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Saturday that 80,000 people have been displaced this week after the IDF issued evacuation orders in eastern areas of Gaza City. (CNN)…[+]