According to UN agency, about 90% of people in Gaza have been displaced since the war began | Israel-Gaza war

According to the United Nations humanitarian agency, about 90 percent of the Gaza Strip’s population has been displaced at least once since the war between Israel and Hamas began.

Andrea De Domenico, head of the UN agency OCHA in the Palestinian territories, said on Wednesday that it was estimated that about 1.9 million people had been displaced in Gaza.

“We estimate that since October, nine out of 10 people in Gaza have been internally displaced at least once, if not up to 10 times,” he told reporters.

“We had previously estimated 1.7 (million), but since that number, there has been the operation in Rafah and even more displacement from Rafah,” he explained the increase.

“Then we also had operations in the north where people were transported,” he added.

He said such military operations have repeatedly forced people to reorient their lives.

“Behind these numbers are people … who have fears and worries. And they probably had dreams and hopes; I fear there are fewer and fewer of them today,” said De Domenico.

“People who have been pushed around like pawns in a board game for the last nine months.”

He said the Gaza Strip had been divided in half by Israeli military operations. OCHA estimated that there were 300,000 to 350,000 people living in the north of the besieged area who were unable to reach the south.

Meanwhile, he added that an estimated 110,000 people had managed to leave the Gaza Strip since the war began before the Rafah border crossing with Egypt was closed in early May.

De Domenico said some remained in Egypt while others have since moved on.

The bloodiest Gaza war ever erupted after the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7 killed 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli figures.

The militants also captured 251 hostages, 116 of whom are still in the Gaza Strip. According to the army, 42 of them are dead.

According to the Health Ministry, at least 37,953 people, again mostly civilians, have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive in the Hamas-controlled area since then.