Jerusalem (AP): The Israeli-Hamas war has already driven around 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people from their homes, levelling the northern part of the territory and heightening fears about a similar fate for the south as Israel’s air and ground offensive widened Friday.
Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have streamed into the town of Rafah in the southernmost end of Gaza in recent days, according to the United Nations, crowding into an already overwhelmed area of the embattled territory.
More than 20,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants among the dead.
Currently:
Israeli strikes across Gaza kill dozens of Palestinians, even in largely emptied north
As Gaza war grinds on, tensions soar along Israel’s volatile northern border with Lebanon
Number of wounded Israeli soldiers grows, representing a hidden cost of war
On foot and by donkey cart, thousands flee widening Israeli assault in central Gaza
