About 200 Palestinians Leaving Rafah Each Hour, UNRWA Says

“The displacement is ongoing and people are leaving towards Khan Younis and the Middle Areas,” said UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma.

“It’s not possible to give a total number of people displaced at the moment given how fluid the situation is,” she added.

A senior UNRWA official told US broadcaster CNN that approximately 50,000 people had left Rafah since Monday.

This is while, the main maternity hospital in Rafah has stopped admitting patients, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has told Reuters.

The UNFPA said Al-Helal Al-Emairati Maternity Hospital had been handling some 85 births each day out of a total of 180 births in Gaza prior to an escalation of fighting between Hamas and Israeli troops on Rafah’s outskirts.