UN agency says it's not evacuating Palestinian shelters or its staffers
World
UN agency says it’s not evacuating Palestinian shelters or its staffers
NEW YORK (AP) Palestinians inspect the rubble of buildings hit by an Israeli airstrike at Al Shati Refugee Camp Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023. As Israel escalates its war on Hamas, it will confront many of the same dilemmas it has grappled with over decades of conflict with the Palestinians. It will want to punish Hamas like never before, but without killing so many Palestinian civilians that it loses international support. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)
Palestinians inspect the rubble of buildings hit by an Israeli airstrike at Al Shati Refugee Camp Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)
The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency known as UNRWA has transferred only its international staff to its compound in southern Gaza.
Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the agency, said that UNRWA was not aware of any evacuation plans for its thousands of Palestinian staff members and their families in Gaza. She said that local UNRWA workers were making their own decisions about whether to stay in their homes in Gaza City, transfer to the U.N. compound in the south, or flee elsewhere within the Gaza Strip.
UNRWA also said it was not evacuating its dozens of schools-turned-shelters, home to hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians across the territory.
UNRWA provides basic services and funding to 1.3 million people registered as Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip.
