Food distribution in Rafah suspended due to security situation
Tel Aviv, May 22 (IANS/DPA) The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) temporarily suspended food distribution in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, it wrote on the social media platform X. The reasons given were supply shortages and the security situation. The Israeli military operation was continuing in Rafah on the border with Egypt, particularly in the east of the city. A military spokesman reported on Tuesday that terrorist structures had once again been destroyed and underground weapons caches discovered. According to Israeli information, 403 lorries carrying aid arrived in the Gaza Strip on Monday. Since the beginning of the war, the Israeli authorities say more than 572,000 tons of aid have been delivered. The Gaza war was triggered by the massacre carried out by the Palestinian Islamist organisation Hamas and other groups on October 7. More than 1,200 people, including around 400 soldiers, were killed in the terrorist attack and more than 200 were taken hostage to the Gaza Strip. More than 35,000 people, mainly women and children, have been killed in the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, and around 80,000 injured. More than 80 per cent of dwellings are estimated to have been destroyed, and most of the territory has been rendered uninhabitable. –