At least nine out of 10 people in the Gaza Strip are now displaced and have no homes. They have been forced to move by Israeli warplanes multiple times since 7 October, 2023.
“We are again at the crossroads where the UN and its partners has to reset their operations,” Andrea De Domenico, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian Territory, said at a virtual news conference as reported in Anadolu.
“…We estimated that nine of every 10 people in the Gaza Strip have been internally displaced at least once, if not up to 10 times, unfortunately, since October,” he reported.
“People in the last nine months have been moved around like pawns in a board game, forced from one location to the next location.”
De Domenico said residents have to rebuild extremely difficult living conditions each time, leading to more suffering and a greater need for humanitarian aid.
Stressing that the UN will continue to stay in the region, he highlighted that aid distribution is challenging every day.
Citing the Palestinian Authority’s Bureau of Statistics, De Domenico said Gaza’s population is 2.3 million and he estimated that 110,000 have left Gaza, and 37,000 have been killed.
Meanwhile the UN lowered its population estimates of Gaza from roughly 2.3 million people to about 2.1 million, following thousands of deaths and exodus of Palestinians.
He said that 110,000 people have fled Gaza and crossed into Egypt since October, according to the border authority, and close to 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war.
Over 87,000 Palestinians are wounded, while another 10,000 are estimated to be buried under the debris of bombed homes according to TRT.–
Dr Marwan Asmar is a journalist from Amman, Jordan
