The UN humanitarian office on Friday expressed concern about military activity in Khan Yunis, which has forced more people to flee to Rafah, on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, and named the border town “pressure cooker of despair.”

The comments come as Israel prepares to continue its war against the Gaza Strip further south, near the border with Egypt, where the majority Gazans sought refuge from the Israeli offensive.

“I want to emphasize our deep concern about the escalation of hostilities in Khan Yunis, which has caused increase in the number of displaced people prisoners seeking asylum in Rafah in recent days,” said Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

More than half of Gazan’s 2.3 million people are sheltering in the area, mostly cold and hungry, in makeshift tents and public buildings.

“Rafah is a pressure cooker of despair, and we are afraid of what will happen next– said Laerke.

Residents of the Gaza Strip said Israeli forces bombed areas near hospitals in Khan Yunis and intensified attacks near Rafah.

“Khan Younis is also increasingly under attack, and it was shocking to hear of intense fighting near hospitals, jeopardizing the safety of medical staff, the wounded and sick, and thousands of displaced people seeking refuge. there,” Laerke said.

“Actually, agencies are struggling to respond in these circumstances“.

In separate comments, UNICEF stated that it estimates that 17,000 children in Gaza left unaccompanied or were separated from their families during the conflict, which began on October 7 following attacks by Hamas militants in southern Israel.

Almost all children in the enclave are considered to require mental health support.

“They experience symptoms such as extremely high levels of constant anxiety, loss of appetite. They can’t sleep, experience emotional outbursts or panic every time they hear a bomb go off,” said Jonathan Creeks, UNICEF communications director for the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

“Before this war, UNICEF already estimated that 500,000 children needed psychosocial and mental health support in the Gaza Strip. Today we will calculate that almost all children need such supportand that means more than a million children.”

Reuters