“UNRWA estimates that 65,000 people are sheltering in Rafah,” it said on X.
“Six weeks ago there were around 1.4 million.”
UNRWA didn’t provide any detail as to where in Gaza those people had been displaced to.
“Since the war began, families in Gaza have been forced to flee again and again,” the agency noted, adding, “They keep looking for safety where there is none.”
Last week, the Norwegian Refugee Council outlined in a report that almost a million people — half of Gaza’s population — have been displaced in the past month following Israel’s expanded military operations in Rafah.
The report stated that it is becoming increasingly difficult for displaced people in Gaza to relocate, facing issues such as clogged streets, overcrowding, fuel shortages, and a sixfold surge in transport costs. It also warned of a rise in Hepatitis A cases, with the accumulation of solid waste becoming a “critical problem”.
Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.
More than 37,300 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 85,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.
Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
