Palestinians fleeing Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip this month.Credit…Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
More than 800,000 people have had to relocate from the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip in the past two weeks, crowding into other parts of the territory without access to the most basic hygiene and infrastructure, a United Nations official said on Monday.
The latest wave of displacement in Gaza began in early May when Israel sent out evacuation notices and launched military operations in Rafah, which is along the border with Egypt. More than half of the enclave’s civilians had been seeking refuge in the city — most of them after fleeing fighting elsewhere in Gaza multiple times.
Since Israel’s incursions into Rafah, the once overcrowded shelters and tent villages in the city have largely emptied out, Edem Wosornu, an official with the United Nations’ office for humanitarian affairs, told the Security Council on Monday. People have moved to areas near Khan Younis and Deir al Balah and set up makeshift camps that lack sanitation, water, drainage or shelter, she said.
“We have described it as a catastrophe, a nightmare, as hell on earth. It is all of these, and worse,” Ms. Wosornu said.
Since the beginning of the war in October, three-quarters of Gaza’s population has been displaced, with many people moving four or five times, she said.
Israel’s military said on Monday that more than 950,000 civilians had left the Rafah area since its expanded evacuation orders. A military spokesman said about 300,000 to 400,000 civilians remain there.
Israel has cast the orders as a humanitarian step to protect civilians ahead of further military action, which they say is necessary to root out Hamas fighters in southern Gaza. But aid groups said the additional displacement is worsening an already catastrophic humanitarian situation.
In its latest update, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs described people living in clusters of 500 to 700 tents, many of them fashioned out of blankets, nylon or whatever other materials are available. Some tents were set up on an unstable beach slope, with waste from higher areas rolling downhill past the dwellings into the sea, according to the report.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the chief U.N. agency that aids Palestinians, wrote in a social media post that each relocation comes with risks and takes a heavy toll.
“Every time, they are forced to leave behind the few belongings they have: mattresses, tents, cooking utensils and basic supplies that they cannot carry or pay to transport,” he wrote. “Every time, they have to start from scratch, all over again. ”
