Over A Million Flee Rafah As Netanyahu Calls Biden’s Hostage Deal ‘Incomplete’

Over A Million Flee Rafah As Netanyahu Calls Biden’s Hostage Deal ‘Incomplete’:

After weeks of the intensifying Israeli army ground operation in Rafah, the United Nations has estimated that around one million Palestinians have fled the southern Gaza city.

The United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) issued this new astounding figure on Monday, describing that “a staggering one million people have now fled Rafah in southern Gaza” amid new reports of “overnight attacks in southern, central and northern locations by Israeli forces.”

“Conditions are unspeakable” the agency added, with most families having sought refuge in nearby Khan Younis and its largely damaged and destroyed facilities and buildings.

Rafah had a pre-war population of about 280,000 people, but throughout the conflict at least half or most of all the displaced persons in the Gaza Strip has been pushed into the city. The total prewar population of Gaza was 2.3 million people.

The Israeli military has meanwhile ordered civilians to go to an “expanded humanitarian zone” which lies about 12 miles away; however, most eyewitnesses have told international media that there is nowhere for this many people to go.

One medical aid worker has told Al Jazeera that the situation with hospitals in the Gaza Strip is “beyond catastrophic” at this point:

Dr Dorotea Gucciardo from Glia, a group that 3D prints open-source medical equipment for low-resource areas, has said the situation in hospitals across Gaza is “beyond catastrophic”.

“What we’ve been witnessing since October is a complete systematic destruction of hospitals by the Israeli military, starting in the north and working their way to the south,” she told Al Jazeera.

“There are few operating facilities. we have one semi-functioning hospital [in Deir el-Balah]. Patients are unable to access the healthcare that they need and doctors are unable to provide the resources that they require in order to provide health services,” Gucciardo added.

The situation looks intractable and will likely continue spiraling before it gets better. President Biden’s major peace plan effort he announced Friday continues getting pushback from the Netanyahu government. The prime minister complained to lawmakers there are still significant “gaps” in the plan.

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