WASHINGTON: The pinnacle of the United Nations company for Palestinian refugees has accused Israel of laying the groundwork for the mass expulsion of Gazans into Egypt, an accusation Israel mentioned was “merely not true”.
Greater than two months of lethal warfare between Israel and Hamas, sparked by the militant group’s Oct 7 assaults, have displaced most of Gaza’s inhabitants, however Palestinians are largely barred from leaving the slender besieged territory.
In an opinion piece revealed on Saturday within the Los Angeles Instances, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini pointed to the worsening humanitarian disaster in Gaza and the rising focus close to the border of displaced civilians who fled the preventing, first within the north after which additional south.
“The United Nations and a number of other member states, together with the US, have firmly rejected forcibly displacing Gazans out of the Gaza Strip,” Lazzarini mentioned.
“However the developments we’re witnessing level to makes an attempt to maneuver Palestinians into Egypt, no matter whether or not they keep there or are resettled elsewhere.”
The widespread destruction within the Palestinian territory’s north and the ensuing displacements had been “the primary stage of such a state of affairs”, he added, whereas forcing civilians from the southern metropolis of Khan Yunis nearer to the Egyptian border was the subsequent.
“If this path continues, resulting in what many are already calling a second Nakba, Gaza is not going to be a land for Palestinians anymore,” Lazzarini mentioned, utilizing the Arabic time period for the exodus or pressured displacement of 760,000 Palestinians in the course of the warfare that coincided with Israel’s creation in 1948.
Responding to the accusation, a spokesperson for the Israeli defence ministry workplace liable for Palestinian civilian affairs mentioned: “There’s not, by no means was and by no means can be an Israeli plan to maneuver the residents of Gaza to Egypt. That is merely not true.”
