STORY: From one displacement to another: Gazans fleeing Rafah cram into squalid areas
SHOOTING TIME: June 11, 2024
DATELINE: June 12, 2024
LENGTH: 00:01:43
LOCATION: GAZA, Palestine
CATEGORY: SOCIETY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of displaced people in Khan Younis
2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic): AHMED AFRAN, Displaced Palestinian
3. various of displaced people

STORYLINE:

Ahmed Arfan, a Palestinian from Rafah who has been displaced along with his wife and four children, has set up a temporary tent for his family in southern Gaza's city of Khan Younis.
   
"I was forced to sleep in the open for several days. I had to distribute my children and wife among my relatives' tents until I could set up our own," Arfan, 39, told Xinhua.

After a terrible ordeal, Arfan pitched a tent near a landfill in Khan Younis' Mawasi area. "All day long, we suffer from the foul smell of the waste. Mosquitoes and insects plague us day and night, but I have no choice. There are many displaced people here and there is no other place for us," he said.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic): AHMED AFRAN, Displaced Palestinian
"The suffering is difficult because there is no water and I can only use the sea to clean my child. There, it is a sewer. You can visit the tent and see the tragedy of war."

On May 7, the Israeli army expanded its military operation in Rafah, ordering more than 1.5 million Palestinians sheltering there to head to Khan Younis and other areas of central Gaza. 

"The army claimed that the security areas would have all the necessities for housing and living," said Arfan. "Still, we have found nothing. Our suffering has only doubled."
   
Like thousands of other displaced people, Arfan must walk several kilometers daily to fetch water and buy food at inflated prices.
   
The situation is compounded by the inability of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to cope with the high number of refugees in Khan Younis and other areas. "UNRWA cannot handle the number of displaced people here," Arfan added.
   
UNRWA stated that it continues to provide essential services despite dire conditions and increasing challenges. The agency, stressing that the humanitarian space "continues to shrink," estimates that the Khan Younis area and central Gaza are now sheltering about 1.7 million people. 
   
Palestinian families are living in "inhumane conditions with a scarcity of water, food, and supplies," UNRWA said, calling for an immediate end to the blockade by Israel. 

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Gaza, Palestine.
(XHTV)