Gaza [Palestine], March 27: Israel's renewed attacks on the Gaza Strip have continued for a ninth straight day, killing dozens of Palestinians, as the United Nations says more than 140,000 people have been displaced since last week.
The UN's humanitarian agency, OCHA, said 142,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced since Israel resumed its war on Gaza on March 18.
"Fleeing with only a few personal belongings, many people are now staying on the streets, in desperate need of food, drinking water, and shelter essentials," the agency said.
Israeli attacks killed at least 39 people, including children, and wounded 124 across Gaza in 24 hours, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Wednesday. Attacks were reported across the enclave, including in northern Gaza's Jabalia, as well as Khan Younis and Rafah in the south.
In Jabalia, Israeli military planes hit a house packed with civilians, killing at least eight of them. Among the victims was a six-month-old baby.
At the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, a residential flat was targeted, killing one child. "This night has been marked by utter devastation, with Israeli forces bombarding densely populated areas in central and northern Gaza," said Al Jazeera's Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
"People here are quite terrified of what might come next as there's been no breakthrough in the ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas."
According to the UN's OCHA, about 250,000 Palestinians are in the areas slated for evacuation in Rafah, Khan Younis and northern Gaza, including more than 50,000 people at 240 sites for internally displaced people. Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City in the north, said displaced people were seeking all and any place that would provide "even just a little bit of safety for them".
"They are moving into tent sites, overcrowded areas, they are moving into the near-collapsing, partially destroyed evacuation centres," he said.
The displacement is being driven mainly by Israel's forced evacuation orders and its destruction of homes and public infrastructure, OCHA said.
Since Israel resumed the war, its military has issued six notices, placing about 15 percent of Gaza under evacuation, it added.
Gaza's remaining water system is also in peril, and will completely collapse if fuel supplies run out, all but cutting off people's access to clean water, according to Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF.
Source: Qatar Tribune
