The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said on Saturday that about 150,000 people have fled Rafah since Monday in search of safe places.
For its part, the Israeli army said that nearly 300,000 Gazans have moved, so far, towards the humanitarian zone in Al-Mawasi.
The Israeli army confirmed that about 300,000 people were displaced from eastern Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.
Today, Saturday, Israel ordered new evacuations in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip as part of its preparations to expand its operations, saying that it was also moving to an area in northern Gaza where Hamas had reorganized its ranks.
Violent clashes are taking place across the Strip between Israeli forces and Palestinian factions on the outskirts of Rafah, making access to nearby vital aid crossings inaccessible and forcing more than 110,000 people to flee north.
Israel’s move into Rafah has so far fallen short of the comprehensive invasion it had planned.
The United Nations and other agencies have been warning for weeks that an Israeli attack on Rafah, located on the border with Egypt near the main entry points for aid, would cripple humanitarian operations and cause a catastrophic rise in civilian casualties.
More than 1.4 million Palestinians, about half of Gaza’s population, have taken refuge in Rafah, most of them after fleeing Israeli attacks elsewhere.
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