In response to the Hamas assault, Israel vowed to destroy the group. (File)
Geneva, Switzerland:
An exodus of Palestinians from Gaza into different nations within the area can be ”catastrophic”, the United Nations refugee chief Filippo Grandi advised AFP in an interview Wednesday, stressing the necessity for a ceasefire.
”I hope that there won’t be a regional exodus of Palestinians,” he mentioned.
”One ought to always remember that two-thirds of the inhabitants of Gaza are already refugees from the unique battle,” he mentioned, referring to Israel’s creation 75 years in the past which gave rise to the exodus or compelled displacement of 760,000 Palestinians.
That occasion is called the Nakba, Arabic for ”the disaster”.
A contemporary exodus, Grandi warned, ”can be a further burden on the refugee inhabitants, on the Palestinian inhabitants and on the area”.
His feedback got here as Israeli forces battled Hamas terrorists in Gaza’s most important southern metropolis Khan Yunis Wednesday, in among the most intense combating of the almost two-month battle sparked by the October 7 assaults.
These assaults killed 1,200 individuals, largely civilians, in keeping with Israeli authorities, and round 240 individuals taken hostage.
In response to the Hamas assault, Israel vowed to destroy the group, and has carried out a relentless bombardment and a floor offensive in Gaza that has killed greater than 16,200 individuals, most of them girls and kids, in keeping with Gaza’s Hamas-run authorities.
Israeli troops, tanks, armoured personnel carriers and bulldozers have rolled into Khan Yunis, Gaza’s second-largest metropolis, forcing already displaced civilians to pack up and flee once more, witnesses advised AFP.
The main target of the battle has shifted into the besieged Palestinian territory’s south following fierce combating and bombardment that lowered a lot of the north to rubble and compelled an estimated 1.9 million individuals to flee.
With the borders closed, barely anybody has made it out of Gaza because the battle started.
And since a week-long truce ended final week, solely round 100 help vehicles have been in a position to enter Gaza, which Grandi warned was ”vastly inadequate”.
”It is vitally, essential to deal with this to stop an exodus that will be actually catastrophic,” he mentioned.
”The precedence is to return to a pause… hopefully adopted by a humanitarian ceasefire, (an) much more secure cessation of hostilities,” he mentioned.
”The Palestinian individuals are in the intervening time the victims of this army motion, he mentioned, including that with greater than 16,000 already lifeless, this ”has to finish as quickly as doable”.
”That is the result that we must always all be engaged on.”
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)