More than 338,000 people displaced in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations said, as heavy Israeli bombardments continue to strike the Palestinian enclave.
OCHA, the UN humanitarian agency said in a statement sent on Thursday, “Mass displacement across the Gaza Strip continues.”
The number of people who were forced to flee their homes in Gaza by late Wednesday had risen by an additional 75,000 people from the figure provided 24 hours earlier, reaching 338,934, it said.
The announcement came as Israel pounded Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip — the most populated enclave of 2.3 million people — in response to the Palestinian militants’ shock Saturday attack.
1,200 people, most of them civilians, were killed in the onslaught — the worst in the history of the country, Israeli forces said.
Officials reported in Gaza more than 1,000 people have been killed in Israel’s sustained campaign of air and artillery strikes.
Almost 220,000 people, or two-thirds of the displaced people, have sought shelter in schools led by the UN agency helping Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, OCHA said.
Another almost 15,000 people have sought shelter in schools run by the Palestinian Authority, while more than 100,000 were being sheltered by relatives, neighbors, and a church and other facilities in Gaza City.
Around 3,000 people had already been displaced within the enclave before Saturday’s assault, OCHA said.
The bombing campaign has destroyed or caused uninhabitable at least 2,540 housing units in Gaza, OCHA said, quoting numbers from the Gaza Ministry of Public Works and Housing.
It said another 22,850 housing units sustained moderate to minor damage.
The UN agency also expressed panic at the considerable destruction of civilian infrastructure damaged in the shelling.
Among other things, it said sewage facilities serving more than a million people had been shot by air strikes, leaving solid waste gathering in the streets, posing a health risk.
