GENEVA: The United Nations on Friday warned that more than 100,000 people have fled Rafah in recent days, with the southern Gaza city under threat of a full-scale Israeli ground offensive.
Israel’s military has already called for Gazans to leave eastern Rafah, which triggered widespread global alarm.
The UN children’s agency UNICEF said more than 100,000 had left the city, with the UN humanitarian agency OCHA putting the figure at more than 110,000.
All eyes have been on Rafah in recent days, where the population has increased to around 1.5 million after hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled fighting in other parts of Gaza.
Georgios Petropoulos, head of OCHA’s sub-office in Gaza, said the situation in the besieged Palestinian enclave had reached unprecedented levels of emergency.
Addressing a briefing in Geneva, via video link from Rafah he said the recent evacuation order that we had from the government of Israel linked to the military operation in Rafah is now counting 110,000-plus displaced people having to move north.
He noted most of these are people who have already been displaced five or six times.
Israel urged not to extend ground offensive
Nations around the world, including key Israeli backer the United States, have asked Israel not to extend its ground offensive into Rafah, citing fears of a large civilian toll.
UNICEF’s senior emergency coordinator Hamish Young, said Rafah must not be invaded and called for the immediate flow of fuel and humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
Speaking from Rafah he said that people in Rafah are being told to move to other places. He added that more than 100,000 people have fled Rafah in the last five days.
