Gaza City, October 27 (RHC)-- The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that the ongoing Israeli evacuation orders and restrictions on the entry of essential supplies to the north had left the civilian population in “horrific circumstances.”

“Many civilians are currently unable to move, trapped by fighting, destruction or physical constraint and now lack access to even basic medical care,” it said.

Palestinian health officials said the siege had crippled the healthcare system in northern Gaza and was blocking medical teams from reaching bombed sites.

Israel maintains that its forces have returned to northern Gaza more than a year into the war to root out Hamas fighters who had regrouped there.  The Israeli military claimed it “eliminated over 40 terrorists” in the Jabalia area in the past 24 hours, as well as dismantled infrastructure and located “large quantities of military equipment”.

But Mansour Shouman, a Palestinian journalist who used to live in Gaza, said Israel wants to force Palestinians to leave the northern part of the Strip to create settlements there.

“That area has been going through three weeks of very heavy land invasion attempts by the Israelis.  You all are hearing what’s happening with the medical services there. You all are hearing what has happened with the implementation of the General’s Plan, which is trying to eradicate the presence of Palestinians in the north of the Gaza Strip … and push them further south, in order to create a buffer zone for the Israelis and then to create settlements there,” Shouman told Al Jazeera.