Nine out of every 10 people in the Gaza Strip have been displaced at least once since the war between Israel and Hamas began, the United Nations humanitarian aid agency said on Wednesday.
Andrea De Domenico, head of the UN’s OCHA agency in the Palestinian territories, said about 1.9 million people had been displaced in Gaza.
“We estimate that since October, nine out of every 10 people in the Gaza Strip have been internally displaced at least once, or unfortunately up to 10 times,” he told reporters in New York and Geneva from Jerusalem.
Explaining the increase, he said, “At first we were estimating 1.7 million, but after that number was reached, we had operations in Rafah, and there were additional displacements from Rafah.”
He said, “After this we also started a campaign in the North, through which people were sent there.”
He said such military operations have forced people to repeatedly renegotiate their lives.
“Behind these figures there are people… who have fears and grievances. And they probably had dreams and hopes; unfortunately, today I fear these are diminishing,” Di Domenico said.
“Over the last nine months people have been moved around like pieces in a board game.”
He said the Gaza Strip has been split in two due to Israeli military operations. OCHA estimates that there are 300,000-350,000 people living north of the besieged area who are unable to move south.
Meanwhile he said that since the war began, an estimated 110,000 people had managed to leave the Gaza Strip before the Rafah crossing into Egypt was closed in early May.
De Domenico said some people remained in Egypt, while others moved on.
The bloodiest war in Gaza so far has been sparked by a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, leaving 1,195 people, mostly civilians, dead, according to an AFP count based on Israeli figures.
The militants also took 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, 42 of whom the military says are dead.
Since then, Israeli retaliatory strikes have killed at least 37,953 people, mostly civilians, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-run territory.
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