About 800,000 people have fled Rafah since Israeli operation began in the city, head of UN agency says

Displaced Palestinians pack their belongings before leaving an unsafe area in Rafah on May 15, 2024, as Israeli forces continued to battle and bomb Hamas militants around the southern Gaza Strip city. Tens of thousands of civilians fled heavy fighting in Rafah, as Palestinians marked on May 15 the 76th anniversary of their mass displacement during Israel's wartime creation in 1948 which they call the "Nakba" or "catastrophe". (Photo by AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)Displaced Palestinians pack their belongings before leaving Rafah, Gaza, on May 15.AFP/Getty Images

Approximately 800,000 people, nearly half of Rafah’s population, have been displaced since Israeli forces started military operations in the area on May 6, according to the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Since the conflict in Gaza began, Palestinians have been repeatedly forced to flee, “never finding safety, not even in UNRWA shelters,” the agency’s commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, said Saturday in a post on X.

He also said the number of aid trucks getting into the strip is only “a small trickle amid the growing humanitarian needs and mass displacement.”

“While we welcome reports on first shipments arriving at the new floating dock, land routes remain the most viable, effective, efficient and safest aid delivery method. The crossings must re-open and be safe to access,” he said.

Lazzarini’s comments echo a warning from another UN agency, which said in a report Friday that Gazans face a “dire” food situation as Israel tightly restricts aid deliveries to the enclave.