UNRWA: Nearly 450,000 people have been forcibly displaced from Rafah since 6 May

OCCUPIED AL-QUDS, May 14, (ST) –Nearly half a million people have fled Rafah in the last week amid continuing Israeli bombardment that has crippled humanitarian aid deliveries, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

“UNRWA estimates that nearly 450,000 people have been forcibly displaced from Rafah since 6 May. People face constant exhaustion, hunger and fear. Nowhere is safe. An immediate #ceasefire is the only hope,” it said in an update on X.

UNRWA posted photos of empty streets in Rafah as families continue to flee in search of safety.

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.”

“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.

Moreover, the agency said on its X account that more than 150,000 pregnant Palestinian women are facing terrible sanitary conditions and health hazards amid the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and the forced displacement of its population.

“No child in the world should suffer like this. We need a ceasefire Now,” said UNRWA.

UNRWA warned that a new level of desperation is unfolding in Gaza under the world’s watch.

According to UNICEF, 95 percent of pregnant and breastfeeding women face severe food poverty in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

Source: Agencies

B.Q.