About 110,000 people have fled Rafah, UNRWA says

Some 110,000 people have left Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip since the Israeli army started advancing on the city, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) says.

"@UNRWA estimates around 110,000 people have now fled Rafah looking for safety," the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said in a post on the X platform on Friday.

"But nowhere is safe in the #GazaStrip & living conditions are atrocious," the post continued. "The only hope is an immediate #Ceasefire."

The Rafah border crossing to Egypt remains closed to humanitarian aid deliveries, according to the Palestinian border authority.

The Israeli army said troops were still deployed in the east of the city of Rafah and in Al-Saitun in the centre of the Gaza Strip.

In Rafah, the army had located several tunnel entrances. During battles on the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing to Egypt, "several terrorist cells were eliminated."

The Israeli air force also attacked several areas in the Rafah area from which rockets and mortar shells had been fired at Israel in recent days.

The Kerem Shalom border crossing, which serves as an important crossing point for humanitarian aid into the blockaded coastal strip, was also targeted.

On Monday, the Israeli military had called on residents of the eastern part of Rafah to leave the area.

More than one million internally displaced persons are said to be living in Rafah.

Israel's Western partners, above all the United States, have warned the Israeli government against a large-scale military operation in Rafah due to the expected dramatic humanitarian consequences.