Palestinians in Rafah in panic, anxiety after Netanyahu's plan of offensive: UNRWA

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) warned on Friday that there is a growing sense of anxiety and panic in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's order to the army earlier in the day to submit a military plan for an offensive on Rafah after evacuating civilians.

"Any large-scale military operation among this population can only lead to an additional layer of endless tragedy that's unfolding," UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said on X.

"There's a sense of growing anxiety and panic in Rafah. People have absolutely no idea where to go," he added.

Lazzarini's statements follow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Friday orders to the army to submit a military plan to evacuate civilians from Rafah and to defeat Hamas battalions there.

Estimates indicate that around 1.4 million Palestinians reside in Rafah after the Israeli army forced hundreds of thousands of people in the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate to the south.

Despite the International Court of Justice's provisional ruling, Israel continues its onslaught on the Gaza Strip where at least 27,947 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 67,459 injured since Oct. 7, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.

The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza's population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.