Geneva, Nov 17, (dpa/GNA) – Around 800,000 people are still believed to be living in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, almost six weeks after the start of the war, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) in the West Bank said on Friday.
The authority said the estimate, was based in part on data from telecommunications companies, and it used November 11 as a cut-off date for its figures.
The information could not be independently verified. In the midst of the chaos of war, it is difficult if not impossible, to verify much of the information coming out of Gaza.
If true, it would mean that only a third of the population, or 400,000 people, that lived there before October 7, has left the area.
According to UN figures, around 1.6 million of the 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip have fled, because of the Israeli attacks. Thousands of homes have been destroyed.
Many have found refuge in public buildings and facilities, run by United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which says it is housing some 813,000 displaced people.
Israel called on the population in the northern part to move to the south, shortly after the war began.
GNA