ANKARA, Türkiye
Around 80,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah since the start of an Israeli offensive against the city in the southern Gaza Strip on May 6, the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) reported this Thursday, May 9.
“People are facing another forced displacement in the Gaza Strip,” UNRWA said in a statement.
“The cost to these families is unbearable. No place is safe. We need a ceasefire now,” he added.
The Israeli Army on Tuesday took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt, a vital route for humanitarian aid to the besieged territory.
The move came a day after the military issued evacuation orders for Palestinians in eastern Rafah, a move widely seen as a prelude to Israel’s feared attack on the city, where around 1.5 million have taken refuge. of displaced Palestinians.
See also: UN warns that medical facilities in Rafah could soon become inaccessible or inoperable
Tel Aviv has attacked the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a Hamas-led cross-border attack, which Tel Aviv says killed about 1,200 people.
Since then, more than 34,800 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, the vast majority of whom were women and children, and another 78,404 have been injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Nearly seven months into the Israeli war, vast areas of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in an interim ruling in January said it is “plausible” that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and ordered Tel Aviv to stop such acts and take steps to ensure humanitarian assistance is provided. to civilians in Gaza.
*Aicha Sandoval Alaguna contributed to the writing of this note.
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