“About 50,000 people” left Rafah in the last 48 hours, UNRWA staff told CNN

“About 50,000 people” left Rafah in the last 48 hours, UNRWA staff told CNN

“About 50,000 people” have left the southern Gaza city of Rafah in the last 48 hours as a result of Israeli evacuation orders, a senior staff member at the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) told CNN on Wednesday.

“We detected about 50,000 people who left Rafah in the last 48 hours. We have seen them go to Khan Younis, some have gone to the expanded humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi, others have gone to Deir al-Balah,” UNRWA’s senior deputy director of Gaza affairs, Scott Anderson, told CNN’s Rosemary Church.
Gazans began leaving eastern Rafah on Monday after the Israeli army ordered residents there to “evacuate immediately” as it carried out a military operation in the city.

“We think as the UN that people should choose where they want to go and we will provide assistance to them wherever they decide to seek refuge with their families,” he said.
When asked about the expanded humanitarian area that Israel has designated in the coastal town of Al-Mawasi for Gazan refugees, Anderson said the area “certainly doesn’t have the infrastructure that you would expect,” adding that there are already more than 400,000 people seeking refuge there. .

“It’s basically a sandy area, so there’s no sewage infrastructure, no water infrastructure. There is no road leading there.”
Anderson also said that people fleeing to Khan Younis will reach an area already devastated by war. He stressed that the arrival of more humanitarian aid was a major concern for his agency.