During the past few days, with the intensification of fighting between the Israeli army and Hamas, the Israeli authorities issued an evacuation map asking Palestinians to move south and leave the places where military operations are taking place “for their safety.”
Abu Khalaf said in an exclusive interview with Sky News Arabia that “the numbers of displaced people are constantly increasing, and this is linked to the Israeli military action and field data,” stressing that the Rafah area, which is normally inhabited by 280,000 people, has been displaced to it since the beginning of the war. Of 400,000 Palestinians “in search of absent security.”
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated in a report that most of the displaced people in Rafah are sleeping in the open due to the lack of tents, although the United Nations was able to distribute a few hundred of them.
Civilians arrived in the area after evacuation orders issued by the Israeli army, including areas in and around the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
The situation got worse
The UNRWA spokesman specified the details of the current situation in light of the continued large displacement of Gaza residents, at a number of points, saying:
- The situation in the Gaza Strip is going from bad to worse, especially given the large increase in the number of displaced people in the south, especially in the Palestinian Rafah region.
- The displacement was initially to the southern regions, but after the ground incursion and continuous bombing in the south in the areas of Deir al-Balah and Khan Yunis, there are other numbers displaced, and therefore it is expected that the number in the city of Rafah will reach closer to a million displaced people.
- The Rafah area is not prepared to receive this large number, whether in terms of infrastructure or the relief services provided, whether by us in UNRWA or other institutions working to provide relief services.
- The situation in shelter centers is “very bad,” as there are more than 1.2 million people in our 154 agency facilities, and responding to people’s needs has become a major challenge for institutions working in the humanitarian field.
- There is great destruction in all areas of Gaza, and this has greatly affected the provision of services to the displaced, and the entry of 100 trucks daily is in no way sufficient, especially in light of the widespread destruction, as 500 trucks entered daily before the outbreak of war.
- Fuel has become as important as medicine and water. On the ninth and tenth of this December, 150,000 liters of fuel came in daily, but this is also not enough, especially since, for example, in UNRWA we need 160,000 liters of fuel daily to carry out our operations as a minimum.
- What is needed, then, is a real and serious ceasefire, or even a humanitarian truce and safe corridors so that we can bring in aid, multiply it, and enter it continuously, in a large manner, and without obstacles.
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