The United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) announced that it has now suspended its operations in Rafah, as the Israeli armed forces continue the ground operations they have been conducting in this city, on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, since the authorities of May.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East has been forced to suspend the provision of “health and other critical services to Rafah,” its head, Philippe Lazzarini, said via X on Saturday night.

The service now operates mainly in Khan Yunis, a few kilometers north of Rafah, and in the central part of the enclave. “We have resumed operations at Khan Younis even though all our facilities have been damaged,” Mr. Lazzarini explained.

A representative of UNRWA confirmed to the German Agency that all the staff of the agency left Rafah and are now working in Khan Younis.

The Israeli army continued ground operations in Rafah yesterday, defying strong international protests. The Israeli political and military leadership considers the city, on the closed border with Egypt, to be the hideout of the “last”, according to it, battalions of the military arm of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which it has vowed to destroy after the unprecedented attack in southern sectors of Israeli territory on October 7, triggering the war.

According to the Swiss head of UNRWA, 1.7 million Palestinians have now taken refuge in Khan Younis and Gaza.

Mr. Lazzarini clarified that all 36 shelters of the service in Rafa are now empty.

He pointed out that thousands of forcibly displaced people are forced to live in the ruins of Khan Younis, where shelling and fighting took place for months, and destroyed UNRWA facilities in the Jabalia refugee camp.