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Nearly 2 million people, equivalent to the entire population of Gaza, have been forced to flee due to the effects of the nine-month war between Israel and Hamas forces in the besieged Palestinian enclave.
According to CNN, this is the latest figure compiled by the United Nations (UN) after the Israeli army last week ordered an additional 80,000 people to evacuate areas of Gaza City.
Accordingly, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has increased attacks in several areas of the Gaza Strip, including the northern Shujaya neighborhood, where they previously said they had destroyed Hamas.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) estimates that up to 1.9 million people in Gaza have been displaced. That represents about 90% of the Gaza Strip’s population, which the UN estimates at around 2.1 million. The number of displaced people has risen from 1.7 million since Israel launched its offensive on the southern city of Rafah in May.
A series of new attacks continues to raise questions about how and when Israel will end the war, which has been going on for nearly nine months and is aimed at destroying Hamas' military capabilities and rescuing Israeli hostages.
Israeli officials say the attack on Rafah will be the final phase of the war, but the uptick in fighting in the north shows Hamas still maintains a steady, ongoing presence.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on July 6 that 80,000 people were displaced after the IDF issued an evacuation order in areas east of Gaza City.
On the same day, the IDF said its forces fought Hamas militants for 24 hours in Shujaya, destroying the group's weapons and infrastructure above and below ground.
The IDF said its troops ambushed a group of Hamas militants and eliminated them all without causing any casualties. The IDF also carried out an airstrike using rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and killed a small group of Hamas militants.
Meanwhile, Gaza's civil defense force told CNN that Israel continued to bomb the area on July 6.
“The situation in Shujaya has remained the same for the past 10 days and our team has not been able to enter to rescue people there,” the statement said.
In Rafah, attacks also continued. The IDF did not provide specific figures on the number of airstrikes in Gaza in the past 24 hours.
The war continues to take a heavy toll on civilians, many of whom have been displaced nine or 10 times. Zakaria Bakr, a displaced man in Khan Younis, spoke of the scarcity of water: “Life in makeshift tents is very difficult. We sleep on the sand. Our clothes get dirty. Our hands get dirty. Our eating utensils need to be cleaned, but there is no water.”
Across the Gaza Strip, fuel shortages are also threatening hospital operations and slowing aid deliveries to Gaza. The head of Gaza’s health authority has warned of a “continuing fuel crisis that is affecting the operation of hospital generators, oxygen stations and refrigerators for storing medicines in all health facilities.”
