Mass exodus from the Gaza Strip. Thousands of people are fleeing

The ongoing airstrikes on the Gaza Strip - in response to surprising and bloody attacks by Hamas - have caused a mass exodus from the enclave. The UN estimates that over 187,000 civilians have already left their homes.

About 137,500 displaced persons found refuge in 83 schools managed by UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees - editor's note), located throughout the Gaza Strip. "In cooperation with another UN agency, the World Food Program (WFP), we have provided refugees with bread. We try to provide these people with basic life needs, but conditions are difficult. Some shelters are overcrowded, and the availability of drinking water" - limited, we read in a report published on the UNRWA website.

Earlier on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Israeli armed forces suggested to the residents of the Gaza Strip that they should seek shelter in Egypt under war conditions with Hamas.

On Saturday in the morning hours, Israel was attacked by militants from the terrorist Palestinian organization Hamas. The strike, which was a surprise to the authorities in Tel Aviv, resulted in the highest number of fatalities since 1973 when the Yom Kippur War broke out.

According to the latest data provided by the authorities of the warring parties, the official number of victims in Israel now exceeds 900. In the Gaza Strip, the death of 687 people has been confirmed.

On Monday, Israeli authorities announced that they will cease supplying the Gaza Strip with things like food, water, electricity, and fuel.

UNRWA was established in 1949 by the UN General Assembly to assist in providing education, health care and social services to Palestinian refugees residing in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and the Palestinian Authority. The majority of the refugees that UNRWA has hitherto been assisting are descendants of about 700,000 Palestinians who were expelled from their homes or evacuated during the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948-49.