450,000 Palestinians flee Rafah amid Israeli onslaught: UN agency

By Ahmed Asmar

ANKARA (AA) – Israel’s military offensive in Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip has forcibly displaced around 450,000 Palestinians, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said Tuesday.

"UNRWA estimates that nearly 450,000 people have been forcibly displaced from Rafah since 6 May," UNRWA said in a statement.

The UN agency said Palestinian families continue to flee in search of safety as Israel pushed ahead with its attacks.

“People face constant exhaustion, hunger and fear. Nowhere is safe. An immediate cease-fire is the only hope.”

The Israeli army launched a ground attack last week in Rafah, where more than 1.5 million displaced Palestinians have sheltered. It also captured the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing, a vital route for humanitarian aid and the territory’s only gateway to the outside world that bypasses Israel.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip following Palestinian resistance group Hamas' cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people.

Nearly 35,180 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have since been killed, and over 79,000 others injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

More than seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Tel Aviv is committing genocide in Gaza, ordering it to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.