GAZA (Xinhua) – At least 20,000 Palestinians from various governorates of the Gaza Strip have been displaced to the schools belonging to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), a senior official said on Sunday.
Adnan Abu Hasna, the UNRWA media advisor, said in a press statement that “the displaced people, including women, children, and elderly people, headed to 44 UNRWA’s schools.”
He added that “28 schools only were equipped for sheltering the displaced people during the conflict times,” expecting the number of displaced people to increase in the coming hours.
For the second day in a row, the coastal enclave has been witnessing a military escalation between the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement Hamas and the Zionist regime’s army.
The UNRWA, which also funds 412 schools across other parts of the West Asia region alongside 140 medical clinics, is short of nearly $200 million needed to continue delivering the services until the end of 2023 and pay for staff salaries.
Some donor countries will hold discussions about funding for the UN agency next month.
In addition to the $200 million the UNRWA needs to support its operational budget in the wider region, the agency needs $75 million for food assistance in Gaza.
The territory has been under siege imposed by Israel since 2007.
The Zionist regime’s crippling siege of the Gaza Strip for democratically electing the popular resistance movement Hamas has turned the enclave into the world’s largest open-air prison and left many of its people destitute.
The occupying regime brought the entire enclave under land, aerial, and naval blockade in June 2007.
As a result of the siege, unemployment levels in Gaza are among the highest in the world.