CAIRO, May 10. /TASS/. Around 110,000 people were forced to flee the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip amid the Israeli operation, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

"As Israeli Forces bombardment intensifies in #Rafah, forced displacement continues. UNRWA estimates around 110,000 people have now fled Rafah looking for safety. But nowhere is safe in the Gaza Strip and living conditions are atrocious," the organization said in a statement on X.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 240 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. According to the latest data, some 110 hostages have been released, the Israeli side said.