Thousands flee south as Israel intensifies attacks
As Israeli bombardment intensifies in Khan Younis and Deir al Balah, an estimated 100,000 Palestinians have fled to the crowded southern Gaza city of Rafah in recent days, the United Nations humanitarian agency says.
Rafah is one of the only parts of Gaza that is not facing intense ground fighting, according to the agency.
The Israeli military yesterday announced an expansion of its operations in the southern city of Khan Younis, amid reports of further strikes in southern and central Gaza.
Rafah has become the most densely populated area in Gaza, with an estimated more than 12,000 people per square kilometre. The new wave of displaced people had “further exacerbated” problems related to overcrowding and limited resources, theUNagencysaid.
The southern city has become a reflection of the growing crisis in Gaza, with aid trucks trickling in over the border from Egypt at a fraction of the pace they did before the war, aid groups say, and displaced people enduring crammed conditions.
The Israeli military’s announcement of an expansion of its operations in Khan Younis came a day after the Palestine Red Crescent Society said at least 21 people were killed and 31 injured in a strike near al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, estimates that 85% of Gazans have left their homes since October 7, “including people who have been displaced multiple times, as families are forced to move repeatedly in search of safety”.
Aid remained a challenge, and hungry people had started stopping convoys in search of food, the World Health Organisation said.
UNRWA’s Gaza director Thomas White said yesterday Israeli soldiers fired at an aid convoy as it travelled from northern Gaza along a route designated by the Israeli Army. The team was not injured but a vehicle was damaged, he wrote on social media, adding that “aid workers should never be a target”.
In a post on social media, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths detailed the other difficulties of delivering aid to Gaza, including constant bombardments, damaged
infrastructure and poor communications, as well as direct threats to aid workers in displacement and loss of life.
Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera reported strikes on the Maghazi and Nuseirat camps in central Gaza on Friday, hours after a strike near Rafah’s Kuwaiti Hospital killed 18 and wounded dozens, said Suhaib al-Hams, the hospital director. The city, on the border with Egypt, is hosting many Palestinians displaced from elsewhere in the Gaza Strip.
Among the casualties were women and children as well as internally displaced people who had come from the northern regions and Gaza City, the director said.
Hams attributed the attack to an Israeli missile targeting two residences in the Shaboura camp where displaced people were taking shelter.
The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, dozens of children had been killed and hundreds injured in the West Bank since October 7, UN children's agency UNICEF said, as conflict-related violence had reached “unprecedented levels”.
Eighty-three children had been killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the past three months – double the number for the whole of 2022, the agency's regional
director Adele Khodr said. More than 576 had been wounded, she added.
“As the world watches on in horror at the situation in the Gaza Strip, children in the West Bank are experiencing a nightmare of their own,” Khodr said.
“Children living in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have been experiencing grinding violence for many years, yet the intensity of that violence has dramatically increased since the horrific attacks of 7 October.”
In total, 124 Palestinian children and six Israeli children had been killed there this year, the agency said.
A separate report from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights published this week found that at least 300 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7, most of them in incidents involving Israeli security forces.
Tal Heinrich, a spokeswoman for the Israeli prime minister’s office, said Israeli operations in the West Bank were targeting militants intent on destroying Israel.
At least 21,507 people have been killed in Gaza and 55,915 wounded since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. About 1200 people were killed in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.