Israel has forced 75% of Gaza population from homes: UNRWA
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) says 75 percent of the Gaza population has been forcibly displaced by Israel since October.
In a post on X on Wednesday, UNRWA said many of these people have been forcibly displaced “up to 4 or 5 times.”
“For thousands of Palestinian families there is nowhere left to go: military operations & bombardments pose a continuous threat, buildings have been turned to rubble. Nowhere is safe in Gaza,” the UN’s agency stated.
Simultaneous Israeli assaults on the southern and northern edges of Gaza have caused a new exodus of hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and sharply restricted the flow of aid.
Since May 9, Israel launched its new wave of forced displacement, ordering residents of Rafah to leave the flashpoint city. The UN said on Tuesday that more than 900,000 people in Rafah have so far fled.
According to UNRWA, its facilities in Khan Younis alone, used as shelters for forcibly displaced Palestinians, have increased in occupancy by 35 percent since May 6.
The occupying regime, however, prevents UNRWA from delivering the desperately needed aid to starving inhabitants of Gaza. The UN agency has long been considered a lifeline for people in Gaza.
Founded in 1949, the agency provides services for over six million Palestinian refugees living across the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. In Gaza, it is the primary UN agency delivering healthcare, and essential humanitarian support to the Palestinians trapped in the blockaded territory.
Many of UNRWA's 13,000 staff are Palestinian.
Israel has repeatedly equated UNRWA staff with members of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, claiming that the agency has links to the group without providing any proof of the allegations. Israel has also been lobbying hard to have UNRWA closed as it is the only UN agency to have a specific mandate to look after the basic needs of Palestinian refugees.
Last month, an independent investigation said the Tel Aviv regime had yet to provide evidence of its allegations that a “significant number” of UNRWA employees are “members of terrorist organizations.”
Separately on Wednesday, at least 16 countries put forth a “statement of shared commitments” in support of UNRWA that will be circulated to UN members later in the day.
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