“Nearly 360,000 people have fled Rafah since the first evacuation
order a week ago,” the UN agency said in a post on X, referencing
leafleting by the Israeli military ordering those in eastern
Rafah to leave their shelters.
In another alert, UNRWA warned of ongoing
“restricted humanitarian access” to and across the Gaza Strip
that was now “a matter of life or death” for Gazans already
suffering “relentless bombardments and food insecurity”.
The development comes one week since Israel moved ahead with its
military offensive in Rafah, seizing control of the Gaza side of
the Rafah border crossing and Kerem Shalom crossing.
“We immediately and urgently need safe passage for humanitarian
aid and workers,” the UN agency insisted, amid fresh
reports of more clashes and shelling in Jabalia refugee
camp in the north of the enclave.
“Bombardments and other evacuation orders have created more
displacement and fear for thousands of families” in the north,
UNRWA said. “There's nowhere to go. There's NO safety without a
ceasefire.”
The UN agency also reported on Monday that another staff member
had been killed in Gaza, bringing the total number of staff
killed in the war to 189.
The individual – a 53-year-old senior projects officer - was
believed to have died in an Israeli strike in the central town of
Deir Al Balah, after leaving Rafah. “He leaves behind a wife and
four children,” the agency said.
Funding appeal
In a related development, the UN again highlighted its $2.8 billion appeal to
support more than three million people in Gaza and the West Bank
over the next eight months.
“For months, women and children have been killed at a rate that
exceeds any war in this century. And those who've escaped death
and injury now risk losing their lives because of a lack of food,
safe water, medicine and healthcare,” said Joyce Msuya,
Assistant-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy
Emergency Relief Coordinator.
Speaking in Kuwait, Ms. Msuya described how every day, “scores of
women give birth in horrifying conditions, often without
anesthesia or medical aid, as bombs explode around them”.
“Mothers watch their babies die in their arms because they don't
have enough milk to keep them alive. And children are dying
because they don't have enough food or water.”
So much can still be done
After more than seven months of war, at least 35,000 people have
been killed, according to the Gaza health authorities. Another
70,000 more are wounded or missing, with many more trapped under
the rubble.
Continuing funding is needed urgently to help those who depend on
humanitarian aid to survive, the OCHA senior official said,
insisting that even in the absence of a ceasefire, “there is
still much we can do given the right conditions”.
She noted: “We are in daily access negotiations with the parties.
We are coordinating the humanitarian response…We have pulled
people out of the rubble and repatriated the bodies of aid
workers, including those working for World Central Kitchen and
Médecins Sans Frontières who were killed serving those in need.”
The OCHA official's comments came as the aid coordination
office reported new demolitions of
Palestinian buildings in Al'Arrub Camp in the West Bank
governorate of Hebron.
Latest data from the OCHA online
portal indicates that 435 structures have been damaged or
destroyed across the West Bank so far this year, displacing 824
people.
