Cruel conditions

UN: Around 110,000 people have fled Rafah

Civilians are rescued from a house after an Israeli bomb attack in the Gaza Strip.(Bild: APA/AFP)

According to the UN, around 110,000 people have fled the coastal town overcrowded with refugees since the Israeli army advanced on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. The living conditions are considered atrocious. The only hope: an immediate ceasefire.

The people are in search of safety, wrote the UN Palestinian Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) on X Friday morning. The Rafah border crossing to Egypt remained closed to humanitarian aid deliveries.

The Israeli army announced that troops were still deployed in the east of the city of Rafah and in Al-Saitun in the central section of the Gaza Strip. In Rafah, the army had tracked down several tunnel entrances.

Several terror cells eliminated
"Several terror cells were eliminated" during battles on the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing to Egypt. The Israeli Air Force also attacked several areas in the Rafah area from which rockets and mortar shells had been fired at Israel in recent days.

Displaced Palestinians on the run(Bild: APA/AFP)

The Kerem Shalom border crossing, which serves as an important crossing point for humanitarian aid into the blockaded coastal strip, was also targeted. In Al-Saitun, the army "eliminated several terrorists and destroyed terrorist infrastructure", it was also reported. The air force had attacked around 40 targets in the Gaza Strip within 24 hours.

USA issued a warning to Israel
On Monday, the Israeli military called on residents of the eastern part of Rafah to leave the area. More than one million internally displaced persons are said to be in Rafah. Israel's Western partners, above all the USA, have urgently warned the Israeli government against a large-scale military operation in Rafah due to the expected dramatic humanitarian consequences. Following the massacres in Israel on October 7, Israel wants to completely destroy the Islamist Hamas, whose leaders it suspects are in tunnels under Rafah, where Israeli hostages are presumably also being held for their protection.