The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) on Friday strongly condemned Israel’s plan to forcibly relocate Palestinians in Gaza toward the southern city of Rafah, warning that such a move would create “massive concentration camps” and worsen the already dire humanitarian crisis.
Juliette Touma, UNRWA’s director of communications, told Al-Jazeera English the agency “categorically refuses any forced displacement of any population.”
“If it happens, it will push tens of thousands more people, many of whom have already been displaced multiple times during this war and over generations, further south and into the unknown,” Touma said.
She emphasized that the immediate priority should be reaching a cease-fire and enabling UNRWA to deliver urgently needed aid.
“We have over 6,000 trucks in Egypt and Jordan filled with medicine that is about to expire, food that is spoiling and hygiene supplies,” she said.
“All we are saying is lift the siege, get a cease-fire, allow UNRWA and other U.N. organizations to do our work,” she added.
Earlier, the U.N. raised alarm over continued mass displacement in the Gaza Strip and warned that more than 700,000 people have been uprooted since the end of the cease-fire in March.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he instructed the army to prepare a plan to relocate all Palestinians to what he called a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of Rafah in southern Gaza.
Rejecting international calls for a cease-fire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, killing nearly 57,800 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
The relentless bombardment has devastated the enclave and led to food shortages and the spread of disease.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice over its war on the enclave.
