The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has suspended its work in Rafah after the Israeli army entered the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city.
“UNRWA had to suspend healthcare and other critical services in Rafah,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency, wrote on social media platform X on Saturday evening.
The aid organization now works from the town of Khan Younis north of Rafah and from the central Gaza Strip. “In Khan Younis we have resumed operations despite damage to all our facilities,” Lazzarini wrote.
A spokesperson for the organization confirmed to dpa on Saturday evening that UNRWA staff had left Rafah and were continuing their work in Khan Younis.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) continued their operation in Gaza’s Rafah on Saturday despite extensive international criticism.
Israel views Rafah as the last stronghold of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which sparked the current conflict in Gaza after killing hundreds of civilians in Israel on October 7.
However, many of Israel’s allies have strongly opposed a military incursion into Rafah because of the large number of civilians sheltering there from fighting elsewhere in the coastal area. Many of them have now left Rafah.
According to the head of UNRWA, 1.7 million people currently live in Khan Younis, in the southern coastal area and in the central Gaza Strip.
UNRWA began to gradually resume its work in Khan Younis following the withdrawal of the Israeli army in April and now mainly provides services there.
Previously, the agency’s work focused on Rafah. Lazzarini said all 36 of the aid agency’s shelters there are now empty.
UNRWA said thousands of displaced people are now living among the rubble and in destroyed aid agency facilities in the Jabalia refugee camp after the Israeli army recently withdrew from the northern Gaza Strip city.
