An average of 200 people are leaving the southern Palestinian city of Rafah every hour following Israel’s evacuation order, according to estimates by the UN relief agency for Palestinians.
“The displacement is ongoing and people are leaving towards Khan Younis and the Middle Areas,” communications director of the Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Juliette Touma, told DPA on Wednesday.
“It’s not possible to give a total number of people displaced at the moment given how fluid the situation is,” she added.
A senior UNRWA official told US broadcaster CNN on Wednesday that around 50,000 people had left Rafah since Monday.
Rafah is home to up to 1.5 million internally displaced Palestinians.
The Israeli military had called on residents of the eastern part of Rafah to leave the area on Monday, raising fears that the full-on ground assault of Rafah that Israel has been threatening for months was finally at hand. But despite the increased military operations, an all-out Rafah invasion has yet to take place. (DPA)
