‘Nowhere is Safe’ – UNRWA Says 80,000 Palestinians Face Another Forced Displacement

May 9, 2024

Palestinians are facing yet another forced displacement in Gaza. (Photo: via UNRWA TW Page)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

The Israeli army announced evacuation orders on Monday for residents in the eastern outskirts of Rafah, affecting approximately 100,000 Palestinians.

Around 80,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah since Israeli forces intensified their attack on the southern Gaza town on May 6, according to the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

“People are facing yet another forced displacement in the Gaza Strip,” as they seek refuge elsewhere, UNRWA said in a statement on X on Thursday. “The toll on these families is unbearable. Nowhere is safe. We need a cease-fire now.”

The Israeli army announced evacuation orders on Monday for residents in the eastern outskirts of Rafah, affecting approximately 100,000 Palestinians.

They were instructed to head towards an “expanded humanitarian zone” located in Al-Mawasi, a coastal area between Rafah and Khan Yunis.

UNRWA Shelters Emptied

Scott Anderson, the deputy director of UNRWA, told the Politico news site in an interview that the organization is witnessing “an increase in the amount of people that are displacing from Rafah, not just the areas that were given evacuation orders but across Rafah itself.”

“UNRWA had seven shelters inside the evacuation zone, all emptied. Each one had 5,000-7,000 people,” he explained in the interview, published on Wednesday.

Anderson said there is “a larger presence” from the Israeli military on the ground.

He said Al-Mawasi was “a crappy place”, with already 450,000 people in that general area.

“It’s like trying to set up a city on a beach. There’s no infrastructure, there’s no sewage, there’s no water…It is crowded,” he explained.

Anderson also told Politico that UNRWA’s fuel stocks “are depleted,” and that “its food rations will run out on Friday.”

Fuel Shortage

Fuel for generators has also run out, he stressed.

“As of today, we’re down to no fuel. We’re basically out. We’ve kept enough to meet the minimum security standards we have to meet for the U.N. so we can continue to stay here. But we’re down to that level.”

“Some hospitals will start shutting down their generators in three days if we don’t get fuel in,” he told Politico.

Israel’s war cabinet decided to push ahead with an operation in Rafah, despite the announcement by the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas on Monday of its acceptance of a Qatari-Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Roughly 1.5 million displaced Palestinians were sheltering in Rafah, with many having been displaced from other areas destroyed by Israel in its ongoing military assault on the besieged enclave.

Rising Death Toll

Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 34,904 Palestinians have been killed, and 78,514 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.

Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.

Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.

The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.

(The Palestine Chronicle)