About 5,000 people fled on foot to southern Gaza in a four-hour window on Monday, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The Israeli military called on residents of Gaza and the North Gaza governorates to move south, opening a corridor between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. local time, OCHA said in a statement.
“As roads leading to the main crossing junction had been heavily damaged, it was only reachable by foot. Entire families, including children, elderly people, and persons with disabilities reported walking long distances, carrying their personal belongings by hand,” OCHA said.”
OCHA reported that about 1.5 million people in Gaza are internally displaced. Of them, about 717,000 are sheltering in 149 United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) facilities; 122,000 in hospitals, churches and public buildings; 110,000 people in 89 non-UNRWA schools; and the remainder residing with host families.
The Khan Younis Training Centre, the most overcrowded UNRWA shelter, hosts more than 22,000 internally displaced people — with the space per person less than two square meters (about 22 square feet) and at least 600 people sharing one toilet — OCHA also said in a statement on Tuesday.