The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees says Israel is laying the groundwork for the mass expulsion of Gazans into Egypt.
More than two months of Israel's deadly war on Gaza has displaced most of Gaza's population, but Palestinians are largely barred from leaving the narrow besieged territory.
In an opinion piece published on Saturday in the Los Angeles Times, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini pointed to the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the increasing concentration near the border of displaced civilians who fled the fighting, first in the north and then further south.
The stages
The United Nations and several member states have ''firmly rejected forcibly displacing Gazans out of the Gaza Strip," Lazzarini said.
"But the developments we are witnessing point to attempts to move Palestinians into Egypt, regardless of whether they stay there or are resettled elsewhere."
The widespread destruction in the Palestinian territory's north and the resulting displacements were "the first stage of such a scenario", he added, while forcing civilians from the southern city of Khan Yunis closer to the Egyptian border was the next.
Rafah vast camp
"If this path continues, leading to what many are already calling a second Nakba, Gaza will not be a land for Palestinians anymore," Lazzarini said, using the Arabic term for the exodus or forced displacement of 760,000 Palestinians during the war that coincided with Israel's creation in 1948.
Responding to the accusation, a spokesperson for the Israeli defence ministry office responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs said: "There is not, never was and never will be an Israeli plan to move the residents of Gaza to Egypt. This is simply not true."
Palestinians are currently blocked from leaving, with the territory's estimated 1.9 million displaced people - out of a total population of 2.4 million - turning the border town of Rafah into a vast camp.
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