Gaza (Union)
The United Nations Relief and Works Organization for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced that it had stopped health care and vital services in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, stressing that all of its 36 shelters in the city had become empty due to the Israeli military operation.
Yesterday, UNRWA Commissioner Philippe Lazzarini announced that the UN agency’s shelters in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, were empty, and said that more than a million people had been displaced in search of a safe place that they could not find.
Lazzarini added, in a post on his account on the “X” platform, “UNRWA was forced to stop health services and other vital services in Rafah.”
He pointed out that “the agency’s teams are now working from the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, and the central regions, where 1.7 million people live.”
The UNRWA Commissioner continued: “In Khan Yunis, we resumed operations despite the damage to all our facilities.”
The Palestinians’ need for UNRWA services is increasing in light of the war launched by Israel on Gaza since last October 7, which has left more than 118,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and about 10,000 missing amid massive destruction and famine that has claimed the lives of children and the elderly.
In addition, the Emergency Committee of the municipalities of the northern Gaza Strip, which includes Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun, reported that the Israeli army destroyed about 50,000 housing units in the northern Gaza Strip, which means that more than 90% of its population has become homeless.
The Municipal Emergency Committee announced that Jabalia camp and the town of Beit Hanoun had become “disaster areas.” Israeli forces withdrew from the two areas two days ago after an invasion that lasted three weeks. The committee called for urgent international intervention to help recover the bodies of the victims from under the rubble of the camp’s homes, and remove the rubble, which It caused the closure of the streets of the camp, which has an area of no more than one square kilometre, and is inhabited by more than 100,000 refugees.
The municipalities of the northern Gaza Strip indicated that all areas of the north also became without infrastructure and sanitation after the Israeli army deliberately destroyed them over the course of the war, indicating that water wells and sewage stations were destroyed, and that their repair would require long periods and huge capabilities.
The continuing Israeli strikes targeted several areas in the Gaza Strip yesterday, including the city of Rafah.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that 60 people were killed during the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 36,439 since the outbreak of war on October 7.
Despite international appeals, in May the Israeli army began launching a ground attack in the city of Rafah in the far south of the Gaza Strip, which had become the last refuge for hundreds of thousands of displaced people in light of the battles and destruction throughout Gaza.
Military helicopters were targeted in the center of Rafah, while the bombing targeted the south and west of the city, which has become the focus of the war between Israel and the Palestinian factions.
Witnesses reported spotting Israeli military vehicles in western and central Rafah, and hearing explosions and the sounds of battles and clashes as various Israeli Air Force aircraft flew over.
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