By Deutsche Welle
09 May 2024, 09:20 AM EDT
The UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said this Thursday (05/09/2024) that some 80,000 people have fled Rafahin the south of the Gaza Strip, since on May 6 Israel ordered the evacuation of Palestinians living in the east of the city.
“The price these families are paying is unbearable.“lamented the organization on the social network X. “No place is safe” in Gaza, it maintained.
According to the UN, around 1.4 million people are crowded into Rafah, next to the border with Egypt, of which more than a million fled there after the start of the conflict seven months ago, which left the north and center in ruins. of the Palestinian enclave.
The Israeli army on Monday called on the residents of Rafah to evacuate the eastern part of the city, before intensifying its bombing and launching a ground operation.
“This is a limited operation”said a military spokesman, who estimated the number of people called to evacuate to “the expanded humanitarian zone of Al Mawasi” at “around 100,000,” about ten kilometers from Rafah.
Israel claims the last Hamas battalions are entrenched in Rafah. For months now, it has been determined to launch a ground attack to annihilate the Palestinian terrorist movement, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and launched the attack against southern Israel on October 7, which triggered the conflict.
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