An aerial view of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) tent camp in Khan Younis, Gaza, on November 27.
The United Nations relief agency in Gaza — UNRWA – has confirmed the deaths of 19 more of its workers.
In total, “130 UNRWA colleagues have been killed since 7 October," it said in a daily update. RWA did not provide further details on where and when the additional 19 people had been killed.
The agency said that nearly one million displaced people were sheltering in 99 of its facilities in central and southern Gaza, including the Khan Younis and Rafah areas.
It said one of its schools in Deir Al Balah in central Gaza had been damaged by a strike on Sunday, while another school in Khan Younis was damaged by a nearby strike, killing four internally displaced people.
Meanwhile, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini has dismissed reports that the agency may open new refugee camps in Rafah, on the Egyptian border, to which many thousands of internally displaced Gazans have fled. “Allegations that the United Nations has thousands of tents and is planning to open new refugee camps in Rafah are false,” he said.
“There is no safe place in Gaza, whether in the south or the southwest, whether in Rafah or anywhere in what is unilaterally called the 'safe zone.'”
The Israel Defense Forces has repeatedly referenced the planned creation of what it calls a safe zone in the far south of Gaza.