The United Nations estimated today (Saturday) that more than 60 percent of the population of the Gaza Strip has been displaced as a result of the Israeli aggression, which has entered its third week in the fiercest battles with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement, a copy of which was received by Xinhua News Agency, that the cumulative number of displaced people since the start of the round of fighting in Gaza is estimated at more than 1.4 million people.

The statement stated that among them are more than 544,000 people residing in 147 educational districts and schools affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), including 367,500 in central and southern Gaza alone, and 70,000 in 67 schools not affiliated with UNRWA.

According to the statement, about 101,000 people took refuge in the Orthodox center, churches in Gaza City, hospitals, and other public buildings. In addition, the Palestinian Ministry of Social Development estimates that there are about 700,000 displaced people with host families.

The statement stated that the overcrowding of the UNRWA Educational Operations Department has increased in the central and southern regions of the Gaza Strip at a time when basic resources such as water, food and medicine are suffering from severe shortages.

To confront this situation, on October 19, UNRWA established the first camp for internally displaced people in Khan Yunis, consisting of 60 tents and hosting hundreds of internally displaced people.

The statement indicated that there is anecdotal evidence that some displaced persons are returning to the northern Gaza Strip after the ongoing bombing in the southern Strip, as well as due to the inability to find reasonable accommodation.

The Israeli army announced yesterday that its air force attacked the Gaza Strip during the past two weeks as it had not attacked in decades, indicating that "the war on Gaza will continue for many weeks."

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, the toll of Palestinian martyrs reached 4,137 people, while the number of wounded exceeded 13,000.

The Ministry reported that it had reports of more than a thousand missing persons, most of whom were children, believed to be still under the rubble of destroyed residential neighborhoods in various areas of the Gaza Strip.