The Palestinian group has issued a statement, denying the existence of so-called “safe areas” in the Gaza Strip, calling such claims by the Israeli military “a complete lie” and a form of “deception”, Al Jazeera reports.

“The facts confirm that thousands of people have been killed in shelters and displacement centres, at schools, institutions, and tents that the occupation classified as safe,” Hamas said.

It added that despite this, the Israeli army continues to issue evacuation orders — of late, to the central governorate, namely the Maghazi refugee camp, the village of al-Musaddar, and large areas of Deir el-Balah city, “which are crowded with hundreds of thousands of displaced people from the north and south of the Strip”.

These orders, Hamas said, are “part of Israel’s policy to deepen the suffering of our people and continue the crime of genocide and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip with American political and military cover”.