UN official sees Gazans pushed into Egypt as fighting intensifies
GAZA/CAIRO—Fighting between Israel and Hamas intensified across Gaza on Monday, fueling fears flagged by the United Nations of a mass exodus of Palestinians into Egypt.
The narrow coastal strip has been under a full Israeli blockade since the start of the conflict more than two months ago and the border with Egypt is the only other way out.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes and residents say it is impossible to find refuge in the densely populated enclave, with around 18,000 people already killed and conflict intensifying.
Since the breakdown of a weeklong ceasefire, Israel launched a ground offensive in the south last week and has since pushed from the east into the heart of the major city of Khan Younis, with warplanes attacking an area to the west.
Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee issued a new call on X on Monday for Gaza residents to evacuate Gaza City and other areas of the north as well as Khan Younis in the south for their own safety.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency, the UN body responsible for the welfare of Palestinian refugees, said Gazans were being pushed closer and closer to the border.
“The developments we are witnessing point to attempts to move Palestinians into Egypt, regardless of whether they stay there or are resettled elsewhere,” Lazzarini wrote in the Los Angeles Times.
The border with Egypt is heavily fortified, but Hamas militants blew holes in the wall in 2008 to break a tight blockade.
Egypt has long warned it would not allow Gazans into its territory this time, fearing they would not be able to return.
Jordan, which absorbed the bulk of Palestinians after the creation of Israel in 1948, accused Israel on Sunday of seeking “ to empty Gaza of its people.”
An Israeli government spokesperson called the accusation “outrageous and false,” saying his country was defending itself “from the monsters who perpetrated the Oct. 7 massacre” and bringing them to justice. —REUTERS
