(Washington) The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) accuses Israel of preparing the expulsion of residents of the Gaza Strip to neighboring Egypt, which Israeli authorities deny.
A little more than two months after the outbreak of war declared by Israel on Hamas in response to the bloody attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7, 80% of the 2.4 million inhabitants of Gaza find themselves displaced, according to the ‘UN.
Israel launched its offensive by first bombing northern Gaza, from where Hamas commandos had entered its soil, then gradually extending its operations to the entire territory, pushing the population ever further south, towards the Egyptian border.
In a column published Saturday by the Los Angeles Timesthe head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, deplored the concentration of displaced civilians in an increasingly small area, also a target of strikes, in southern Gaza.
“The United Nations and several member states, including the United States, have strongly rejected [l’hypothèse d’un] forced displacement of Gazans from the Gaza Strip,” writes Mr. Lazzarini in the American daily.
“But the events we are witnessing demonstrate attempts to move Palestinians to Egypt, whether they remain there or are resettled elsewhere,” he adds.
The shelling of northern Gaza and the flight of its residents to the south was “the first step in this scenario”, according to him, the next step being to force civilians to leave the large southern Gaza city, Khan Younes, to mass on the border with Egypt.
“If this path continues, leading to what many are already calling a second Nakba, Gaza will no longer be a land for Palestinians,” warns Mr. Lazzarini.
The “Nakba” (“catastrophe” in Arabic) is the term used by Palestinians to refer to the exodus of some 760,000 of them in 1948, forced to flee or expelled from their homes, during the war that led to the creation of the State of Israel.
Asked about Mr. Lazzarini’s comments, a spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Ministry body responsible for Palestinian civil affairs, Cogat, told AFP: “There is no, there is no There has never been and never will be an Israeli plan to move Gaza residents to Egypt. That’s simply not true.”
And last week, a government spokesperson assured that Israel’s only objective was to protect civilians from the fighting, but “inside the Gaza Strip”.
The war between Israel and Hamas, which entered its 65th on Sundaye day, was triggered by the Hamas attack on October 7 on Israeli soil from the Gaza Strip, which left 1,200 dead, according to the Israeli authorities. The offensive launched in retaliation by Israel left 17,997 dead in the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian Islamist movement’s Ministry of Health.