100,000 more displaced people reach Rafah: UN

Palestinian Territories – AFP

An estimated 100,000 more displaced people have arrived in the already-teeming southern border city of Rafah in recent days following the intensification of Israel’s attacks around Deir al-Balah and Khan Yunis, according to the UN humanitarian office.

At Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, Palestinians gathered to identify loved ones killed in strikes.

Suhair Nasser was holding the bodies of her twin children, who she said in tears were killed in Israeli bombardment on Thursday.

“The house was bombed and the debris fell on the kids on December 28 — their birthday.”

Israel’s relentless aerial bombardment and ground invasion in Gaza have killed at least 21,507 people, mostly women and children since October 7, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

The Israeli army says 168 of its soldiers have been killed inside Gaza.

– Little food, ‘really expensive’ –

Hamas’s military wing, Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said Friday it launched a fresh barrage of rockets at southern Israel.

The UN says more than 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been driven from their homes. Many now live in cramped shelters in the tiny territory or in makeshift tents around Rafah.

Residents in Rafah combed through rubble for survivors on Thursday after an air strike that one witness said left “several casualties”.

Tayseer Abu al-Eish said he was at home when “all of a sudden we heard a loud explosion and debris started falling on us. The apartment was completely destroyed and my daughters were screaming”.

An Israeli siege imposed after October 7, following years of crippling blockade, has deprived Gazans of food, water, fuel and medicine.

A UN aid convoy on Thursday came under fire by the Israeli military without causing casualties, UNRWA said.

The severe shortages have been only sporadically eased by humanitarian aid convoys entering primarily via Egypt.

Rafah residents and displaced people thronged a Rafah market on Friday morning to buy food, including fresh fruit, eggs and meat, trucked in the previous night from Egypt.

“This is the first time eggs and some types of fruit have entered Gaza from Egypt,” said vendor Muntasser al-Shaer.

“All types of fruit are missing in the markets, there are some types of vegetables but they’re really expensive,” he added.

UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths described on social media what he called “an impossible situation for the people of Gaza, and for those trying to help them”.

“You think getting aid into Gaza is easy? Think again,” he wrote Friday on X.

In Tel Aviv, hundreds rallied Thursday calling for a ceasefire.

“Israelis, Palestinians, Muslims, Jews, Christians — this is everybody’s home,” said teacher Itay Eyal, 51, adding that everyone was entitled to live with “freedom and dignity”.