UN: no involvement in forced evictions in the Gaza Strip
Published: Tuesday, Feb 13th 2024, 14:31
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According to the UN emergency aid office OCHA, the United Nations will not take part in the forced expulsion of Palestinians from the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip.
According to a media report, Israel has proposed the construction of extensive tent cities for the population to be evacuated further north of Rafah. As the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday (local time), citing Egyptian officials, Israel's proposal envisages the establishment of 15 camps, each with around 25,000 tents, in the south-western part of the sealed-off coastal area.
"The Israeli government has not discussed such plans with us," OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke told the German Press Agency in Geneva. "Regardless of this, we will not participate in plans to forcibly relocate people," he said. "Nor would we provide tent cities elsewhere so that Israeli forces can forcibly relocate people."
Israel's government has called on UN organizations working in the region to help evacuate civilians from Rafah. The armed forces see Rafah as the last bastion of the Islamist Hamas, which they want to destroy in the course of the Gaza war.
According to UN figures, more than 1.4 million people who have fled Israeli attacks in other parts of the Gaza Strip are now camped out in the city, which once had 300,000 inhabitants. More than 2.2 million people live in the coastal area, which is slightly larger than Munich. The attack plans have been criticized worldwide in view of the refugee situation in Rafah.
©Keystone/SDA
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