(Washington) The head of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) accused Israel of preparing to expel the residents of the Gaza Strip to neighboring Egypt, which the Israeli authorities deny.
Just over two months after the outbreak of war, which Israel declared on Hamas in response to the deadly attack by the Palestinian Islamic movement on October 7, 80% of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have found themselves displaced, according to the United Nations.
Israel launched its attack by first bombing northern Gaza, from where Hamas commandos entered its territory, and then gradually expanded its operations to the entire region, pushing the population south towards the Egyptian border.
In a column I published on Saturday Los Angeles TimesUNRWA Director-General Philippe Lazzarini lamented the concentration of displaced civilians in an increasingly small area, which has also become the target of strikes, in southern Gaza.
“The United Nations and many member states, including the United States, have strongly rejected it [l’hypothèse d’un] “Forcible displacement of Gazans from the Gaza Strip,” Mr. Lazzarini wrote in the American daily.
He added: “But the events we are witnessing show attempts to transfer Palestinians to Egypt, whether they remain there or are resettled in other places.”
The bombing of northern Gaza and the flight of its residents to the south was “the first step in this scenario,” as he put it, and the next step was to force civilians to leave the large city of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza to mobilize. Borders with Egypt.
“If this trajectory continues, leading to what many are already calling a second Nakba, Gaza will no longer be Palestinian land,” warns Mr. Lazzarini.
“Nakba” is the term used by Palestinians to refer to the displacement of about 760,000 of them in 1948, who were forced to flee or were expelled from their homes, during the war that led to the establishment of the state from Israel.
In response to a question about Lazzarini’s statements, the spokesman for the Israeli Ministry of Defense responsible for Palestinian civil affairs, Kogat, told AFP: “There is, there is not, there has never been and there will never be an Israeli plan to transfer the residents of Gaza to Egypt. This “Simply not true.”
Last week, a government spokesman stressed that Israel’s only goal is to protect civilians from the fighting, but “inside the Gaza Strip.”
The war between Israel and Hamas entered its sixty-fifth day on SundayH The day was sparked by the October 7 Hamas attack on Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, which left 1,200 people dead, according to Israeli authorities. The attack launched by Israel in response killed 17,997 people in the Gaza Strip, according to the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian Islamic Movement.
