CAIRO, June 3. /TASS/. More than 1 mln Palestinians have been forced to leave the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip due to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operation, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has reported.

"Forced displacement has pushed over 1 million people away from Rafah," the agency said on its X page. It added that thousands of families "shelter in damaged and destroyed facilities in Khan Younis, where UNRWA keeps providing essential services despite increasing challenges."

On May 6, the Israeli army announced the start of preparations to evacuate the population of the eastern neighborhoods of Rafah. The following day, the military announced that it had launched an operation in Rafah and taken control of the border crossing of the same name on the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt. On May 14, UNRWA reported that since May 6, about 450,000 people have been forcibly displaced from Rafah.

Earlier, the global community urged Israel to abandon the full-scale operation in Rafah. The US authorities stated that they considered this decision to be a mistake, as it would harm the civilian population there and weaken the country's security. The Israeli authorities, in turn, insist that the operation in Rafah is necessary for a total victory and the defeat of armed detachments of the radical Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip.