Since the start of the Israeli offensive in Rafah, the Al-Mawasi camp in the south of the Gaza Strip has expanded three times.
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Since the beginning of May, Israeli troops have been operating in the south of the Gaza Strip, in the town of Rafah. A limited ground offensive, according to the language of the Israeli army, but which has once again pushed between 800,000 people onto the roads, according to the UN, and 950,000 displaced people, according to the Israeli authorities. That’s almost half of Gaza’s pre-war population.
In al-Mawasi and its surroundings, it has been nothing short of chaos in recent days. Since the start of the Israeli offensive in Rafah, the camp has expanded three times. It now adjoins the towns of Khan Younes and especially Deir el-Balah which was less destroyed by the fighting. Youssef, contacted by franceinfo, was moved three times in almost eight months: “All the food, the humanitarian aid, everything is based now in Deir el-Balah. But you can’t even put your finger in, not your foot. I was in Rafah and the city was full, but not like Deir el-Balah.”
In the southwest, on the stretch of sand of al-Mawasi, between the tents, waste is burned, wastewater flows into the sea and sanitary facilities are insufficient. UNRWA sheltered hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Rafah in 35 shelters, 22 were hastily evacuated. We must now rethink the entire aid system. “The speed of the movement of the population means that we have to run behind it. We are in a critical period and that is why we have been constantly calling, since the start of the war, for a ceasefire. We cannot do our humanitarian work and lives must be saved”, implores Jonathan Fowler, spokesperson for the UN agency.
To save their lives, 100,000 other displaced people have fled the fighting zones in the north of the enclave in recent days, to find refuge in al-Mawasi and its surroundings.