Photo : Collected
The UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees estimated Tuesday that a quarter of a million people had been impacted since Israel's army issued a new evacuation order for parts of southern Gaza a day earlier.
"We've seen people moving, families moving, people starting to pack up their belongings and try to leave this area," UNRWA spokeswoman Louise Wateridge told reporters in Geneva via video link from Gaza, adding that the agency "estimates that around 250,000 people have been impacted by these orders".
On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a large-scale rocket attack against Israel and breached the border, attacking both civilian neighborhoods and military bases. Nearly 1,200 people in Israel were killed and some 240 others abducted during the attack. Israel launched retaliatory strikes, ordered a complete blockade of Gaza, and started a ground incursion into the Palestinian enclave with the declared goal of eliminating Hamas fighters and rescuing the hostages. As many as 120 hostages are believed to be still held by Hamas in Gaza and 43 hostages died in captivity.
More than 37,900 people have been killed and over 87,100 others have been wounded in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israel's military operations, Gaza's authorities said.
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