The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has suspended its work in Rafah after the Israeli army entered the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip.
"UNRWA had to stop health and other critical services in Rafah," the UN agency's chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote on social media platform X on Saturday evening.
The aid organization is now working from the city of Khan Younis north of Rafah and from the central Gaza Strip. "In Khan Younis we restarted operations despite damage to all our facilities," Lazzarini wrote.
A spokesman for the organization confirmed to dpa on Saturday evening that UNRWA staff had left Rafah and were continuing their work in Khan Younis.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continued their operation in Gaza's Rafah on Saturday despite extensive international criticism.
Israel deems Rafah the last stronghold of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which triggered the current conflict in Gaza after killing hundreds of civilians in Israel in the October 7.
Many of Israel's allies, however, have adamantly opposed a military incursion into in Rafah due to the high number of civilians having sheltered there from fighting elsewhere in the coastal area. Many of them have since left Rafah again.
According to the UNRWA chief, there are currently 1.7 million people in Khan Younis in the south of the coastal area and in the central Gaza Strip.
UNRWA began to gradually resume its work in Khan Younis following the withdrawal of the Israeli army in April and is now primarily providing services there.
Previously, the agency's work focused on Rafah. Lazzarini said all 36 of the aid organization's shelters there are now empty.
UNRWA said thousands of displaced people are now living amidst rubble and in destroyed aid organization facilities in the Jabalia refugee camp after the Israeli army recently withdrew from the town in the north of the Gaza Strip.