DUBAI (Reuters) – Forced displacement has driven more than a million people from Gaza’s Rafah town, the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said on Monday.
The small town on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip was home to about 1 million Palestinians who fled Israeli attacks on other parts of the enclave, aid groups said.
Since early May, the Israeli military has been conducting what it says is a limited operation in Rafah to root out Hamas fighters and dismantle infrastructure used by the Palestinian Islamist militant group that controls Gaza.
The Israeli army has ordered civilians to go to an “extended humanitarian zone” about 20 kilometers away.
Many Palestinians have complained that they are vulnerable to Israeli attacks wherever they go, and have moved up and down the Gaza Strip in recent months.
UNRWA said thousands of families are now sheltering in damaged and destroyed facilities in the city of Khan Younis, where the organization is providing essential services despite “increasing challenges.”
“The circumstances are unspeakable,” the agency added.
(Reporting by Clauda Tanios, Editing by Timothy Heritage)