Geneva:
More than 423,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations says, after heavy Israeli bombardments in retaliation for Hamas attacks.
By late Thursday, the number of displaced people in Gaza rose by 84,444 people to 423,378, the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA said in a statement sent Friday.
The announcement came as Israel stormed the Gaza Strip in response to Saturday’s surprise attack, the deadliest since the country’s founding in 1948.
Hamas gunmen raided small towns, kibbutzim and a music festival in the desert, indiscriminately killing more than 1,200 people and taking about 150 hostages to Gaza.
Israel has retaliated with air and artillery strikes on Gaza – a densely populated enclave of 2.3 million people – flattening buildings and killing more than 1,400 people.
Israel has also prepared for a possible ground invasion of Palestinian territory.
“Heavy Israeli bombardments, from the air, sea and land, have continued almost uninterrupted,” OCHA said in its update.
“Multiple residential buildings in densely populated areas have been targeted and destroyed in the past 24 hours.”
It said more than 270,000 people – two-thirds of those displaced – have sought shelter in schools run by the UN agency in support of Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
Another nearly 27,000 people had fled to Palestinian Authority schools, while more than 153,000 people took shelter with relatives and neighbors and in other public facilities.
OCHA said around 3,000 people had already been displaced within the enclave before Saturday’s attack.
The bombing campaign has destroyed 752 residential and non-residential buildings, including 2,835 housing units, OCHA said, citing figures from Gaza’s Ministry of Public Works and Housing.
Another nearly 1,800 homes have been damaged beyond repair and become uninhabitable, the report said.
The UN agency also expressed alarm at the significant destruction of civilian infrastructure damaged by the shelling.
At least 90 educational institutions, including 20 UNRWA schools and 70 schools operated by the Palestinian Authority, have also been affected and damaged, with one of the schools completely destroyed.
“Eleven mosques were attacked and destroyed, while seven churches and mosques were damaged,” OCHA said.
Water and sanitation facilities have also been affected, the report said. Since the start of hostilities, six wells, three water pumping stations, one water reservoir and one desalination plant, serving over 1,100,000 people, have been damaged by airstrikes.
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