The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said Thursday that around 80,000 people have fled Rafah since Monday, when Israel intensified its operations in the southern Gaza Strip city.
“The toll on these families is unbearable. Nowhere is safe,” UNRWA said on X.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Thursday that his country’s military “will continue to fight Hamas until its destruction.”
His comments came a day after U.S. President Joe Biden said the United States would not provide offensive weapons to Israel for use in Rafah, while also expressing a commitment to Israel’s defense.
The move followed weeks of U.S. officials expressing opposition to Israel’s plans to carry out an offensive in Rafah, while Israeli officials cited the need to conduct an operation there in order to reach the goals of defeating Hamas and securing the release of hostages held in Gaza.
Witnesses reported Israeli shelling Thursday in Rafah, while the Israeli military reported striking Hamas positions in central Gaza.
United Nations officials expressed concerns about humanitarian aid deliveries reaching Gaza, including fuel, amid the Israeli operations in the Rafah area.
Rafah is a key crossing used to bring in aid from Egypt, while a nearby crossing called Kerem Shalom allows for shipments to cross into southern Gaza from Israel.
The Israeli military said Wednesday it has reopened the Kerem Shalom crossing, but the United Nations said no humanitarian aid had yet entered the Palestinian territory as no one was present to receive it after workers left the area because of Israeli attacks near there.
The Kerem Shalom crossing was closed last weekend after a Hamas rocket attack killed four Israeli soldiers. Tuesday, an Israeli tank brigade seized the nearby Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, also forcing its closure.
The World Health Organization says about 1.2 million people are sheltering in Rafah, and more than half of them are children. Many have come from other parts of Gaza, fleeing in search of safety and shelter as Israel’s campaign against Hamas left much of the Gaza Strip in ruins.
The Israel-Hamas war was triggered by the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and led to the capture of about 250 hostages, according to Israeli officials. About 100 of the hostages were freed in a weeklong truce in late November.
Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 34,900 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. The Israeli military says the death toll includes thousands of Hamas fighters it has killed.
VOA’s Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
