“I hope that there will be no mass exodus of Palestinians from the region,” he said.
“It should never be forgotten that two-thirds of the population of the Gaza Strip are already refugees from the original conflict,” he said, referring to the establishment of the state of Israel 75 years ago, which displaced 760,000 people. Palestinians left or were forced to relocate.
This event is called Catastrophe (Arabic: Nakba).
F. Grandi warned that a new wave of Palestinian migration would become an additional burden for the entire region.
His comments came amid Israeli forces fighting Wednesday in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip. The city saw some of the most intense fighting in the nearly two-month war sparked by the October 7 attacks.
On October 7, Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel. According to Jewish officials, about 1.2 thousand were killed in the attacks. people, mostly civilians, and about 240 people were taken hostage.
The Ministry of Health of the Gaza Strip claims that 16,200 people have already died during the Israeli operation in the territory. people, mostly civilians.
Israeli soldiers, tanks, armored vehicles and bulldozers entered the Gaza Strip’s second-largest city of Khan Younis, forcing civilians who had already been evacuated to pack up and flee again, witnesses told AFP.
After fierce fighting and bombardment that left much of the northern territory in ruins and an estimated 1.9 million people were forced to flee, the conflict moved to the southern part of the besieged Gaza Strip.
Since the start of the war, almost no one has left the Gaza Strip, whose borders are closed.
Only about 100 aid trucks could enter the Gaza Strip after a week-long ceasefire ended last week, which Grandi warned was too few.
“It is extremely important to deal with this problem so that Palestinians do not start fleeing en masse, because that would be a catastrophe,” he said.
“The priority is to return to the pause (…) let’s hope that it will be followed by a humanitarian ceasefire, an even more stable cessation of hostilities,” he said.
“Palestinians are currently the victims of these hostilities,” he said, adding that more than 16,000 have already been killed. people, so it has to end as soon as possible.
“This is the result we should all be aiming for,” he added.
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2024-08-19 06:06:31
