After three days of continuous searching, the Palestinian Ahmed Irfan was able with difficulty to find a place in the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, to set up a tent after fleeing the city of Rafah following the Israeli attack on the southern city.

On May 7, the Israeli army entered the city of Rafah despite international warnings that any attack on the city, which was crowded with more than 1.4 million displaced people, would worsen the humanitarian conditions.

Irfan told Xinhua News Agency, with fatigue evident on his face, "I spent more than three days trying to look for a place to put a tent for me, my wife, and my children to live in after we fled Rafah due to the violent Israeli bombing."

Irfan (43 years old), a father of four children, adds that he was eventually forced to place his tent near a garbage dump in the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis, in light of the lack of sufficient places in the area due to the overcrowding of displaced people.

Yesterday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced in a statement that forced displacement forced more than a million people to flee the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

In a sad tone, Irfan says, "They (the Israeli army) told us to go to the Al-Mawasi area. It is an area that has humanitarian services, but there is nothing humanitarian here. There is no potable water, and we live near a garbage dump that will expose us to epidemics and dangerous diseases."

He added, "Imagine living under these conditions. You have to walk a kilometer to get clean water. This is a tragedy in every sense of the word. There is no institution here that provides us with basic services, neither UNRWA nor any community institution."

Tens of thousands of displaced people gathered in the coastal area of Al-Mawasi on the coast of the Gaza Strip after the Israeli attack on the city of Rafah.

Al-Mawasi is the humanitarian zone, which the Israeli army usually asks residents of the Gaza Strip to go to because it is safe, and it extends from west of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip to the outskirts of Nuseirat in the center of it.

Munira al-Sayyid, who lost her husband in an Israeli bombing on the city of Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, was forced to sleep in her relatives’ tent in Deir al-Balah due to her inability to find any place to put a tent for herself and her two children.

Munira Al-Sayed, 27 years old, said, “This is the third time I have been displaced with my children after my husband was killed in an Israeli raid in the city of Nuseirat during our first displacement from Gaza.”

With tears in her eyes, she added, "I had to put my children in a tent belonging to one of their aunts, and I had to live with a family of my relatives in their tent in the city of Deir al-Balah due to my inability to establish a tent for myself and my children."

She continued on her way to check on her children, "Every day I have to walk a distance of 500 meters to meet my children, spend a few hours with them, and then say goodbye to them in order to return to the tent in which I currently live."

According to Munira Al-Sayed, she did not have the funds necessary to establish a tent due to its high costs, and she did not receive any tent or financial assistance from any international or local institution.

Hassan Ismail narrates his suffering after he fled from Rafah to Mawasi Khan Yunis. After several days, he was able to set up his tent at the port of Khan Yunis, near the seashore, to obtain the basic necessities of life.

Ismail says, "For about 15 days, we have not received any assistance from UNRWA, unlike the situation in the city of Rafah."

He added as he carried a gallon of water and walked with difficulty between the tents, "Look at this crowding. We are forced to bring everything ourselves, and no one asks about us. Even UNRWA was unable to provide its services in Al-Mawasi due to the large number of people."

Ismail, a father of three children, including an 11-month-old child, complains of the scarcity of infant formula in the markets.

He says, "My young son is an infant and has been suffering from malnutrition for several months. He needs baby formula constantly, and there is a scarcity in the markets."

UNRWA said in a statement that it continues to provide basic services despite the increasing challenges and unspeakable circumstances.
UNRWA estimates that the Khan Yunis region and the central Gaza Strip are a haven for about 1.7 million people, stressing that its humanitarian work “continues to shrink.”

UNRWA explained in a post on the (X) platform that Palestinian families are living in “inhumane conditions with scarcity of water, food and supplies,” calling for the necessity of ending the siege immediately.