The UN’s Palestinian refugee agency says around 500,000 Palestinians have been displaced as Israel issues more displacement orders and expands ‘security zones’
Apr 25, 2025
Around 500,000 Palestinians have been displaced by Israeli forces in Gaza over the past month, according to the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA.
Since relaunching its military assault in March, Israel has issued sweeping displacement orders across Gaza, pushing Palestinians into ever-smaller corners of the strip. It has also seized additional territory and incorporated it into so-called ‘security zones’.
Much of the territory is now a no-go area for Gaza’s 2.2 million residents.
“Over the last month in Gaza, around half a million people have been newly displaced,” UNRWA said on Friday.
“The multiple displacement orders issued by the Israeli military leave Palestinians with less than a third of Gaza’s area to live in. That remaining space is fragmented, unsafe, and barely liveable,” it said.
Israeli forces reinvaded Gaza and began seizing territory on 18 March when the Netanyahu government unilaterally ended a ceasefire with Hamas.
It reoccupied the Netzarim corridor in the centre of Gaza, and announced it would carve out a new military zone in the south dubbed the ‘Morag Axis’, which cuts Rafah off from the rest of the strip.
Almost 70 percent of Gaza has been turned into no-go areas for Palestinians, including almost all of Rafah, eastern areas of Gaza City, and a large buffer zone on the border.
Israel’s defence minister has threatened to seize more land and has said that Israeli troops will continue to occupy the security zones after the war.
Almost 2,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel resumed the war five weeks ago.
Israel reimposed a siege on Gaza almost two months ago, preventing the entry of all humanitarian aid, and on 9 March shut off electricity.
Aid agencies say the situation in Gaza is rapidly deteriorating and people have no access to food, fuel and medical supplies. NGOs operating there have said that a famine has already started.
“Overcrowded shelters are in a terrible condition, service providers are struggling to operate, and the last resources are being depleted,” UNRWA said on Friday.
Israel has killed almost 51,400 Palestinians in the 18 months since it launched its military assault on Gaza. More than 117,200 others have been wounded. Tens of thousands of uncounted victims are also believed to be trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings.
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