Recentral images shows an increase of displaced Palestinians in Rafah, the southernmost region of the Gaza Strip, with approximately 1.25 million people now living in poor and cramped conditions. This increase is evident in commercially available images from Planet Labs taken over the past two months, revealing the extent of the dire humanitarian crisis in Rafah, which has worsened as the Israeli offensive against Hamas has intensified in central and southern Gaza.
Early in the war, official shelters became overcrowded, leading to the setup of tents in the immediate area. The number of tents and makeshift structures sharply increased across Rafah after Israel’s repeated orders to evacuate large portions of central and southern Gaza in December.
The influx of displaced people in recent weeks has led to the spread of tent camps farther away from established shelters, presenting challenges such as a lack of electricity, clean water, bathrooms, and less access to aid. Many displaced people have been forced to build their own shelters, with streets and open spaces now filled with homemade structures and tents.
Displaced people staying in official shelters are considered somewhat safer from Israeli airstrikes than those living in makeshift tent camps. However, at least 330 displaced people staying in UN shelters across the Gaza Strip have been killed since the war began on October 7.
Many of the displaced people who have fled to Rafah have come from large swaths of the central and southern regions of Deir al Balah and Khan Younis, areas that were sheltering more than 550,000 internally displaced people before being ordered to evacuate by the Israeli military.
The number of people registered at shelters in Rafah has soared in recent weeks, with hundreds of thousands of additional people also estimated to be staying in the region unregistered with the shelter system.
With a vast majority of Gaza’s population displaced, aid groups and the UN have been struggling to keep up with the staggering demand for help in Rafah and across the Gaza Strip. Even when aid is available, its delivery has been impeded by exhaustive inspections by Israeli authorities and aid trucks sometimes come under fire from Israeli forces.
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