Hundreds of Palestinians have begun to leave neighborhoods east of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, ahead of a possible ground invasion by Israeli forces.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA) has announced that a possible Israeli ground attack on Rafah, where displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have found refuge, will cause more suffering and killed civilians.
Let us recall that this morning the Israeli army issued an urgent order to evacuate Palestinian residents from several areas east of Rafah ahead of a possible ground invasion, calling on them to immediately move to the town of al-Mawasi.
“The Israeli army is expanding the humanitarian zone in Al-Mawasi and is calling on Palestinians to temporarily evacuate from the eastern neighborhoods of Rafah to the expanded humanitarian zone,” army spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on Platform X.
More than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 7 last year.
Israel’s war has pushed 85 percent of the population of the Gaza Strip into internal displacement with acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60 percent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the United Nations.
Israel is accused of genocide before the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop the genocidal acts and take measures to ensure humanitarian aid is provided to civilians in Gaza, AA writes.
