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"Israel launched a massive military offensive on Thursday, sending thousands of troops into Gaza. \nIn a tweet, the Israeli Defense Forces said: \"We have hit Hamas hard, and we will continue to hit Hamas hard.\"\nBut caught between Israel's forces and Hamas\u2019s rockets are approximately 22,000 Palestinians who have taken refuge in one of the United Nations\u2019 24 designated emergency shelters.\n\nWe are providing food, shelter and water to all 22,000 individuals taking refuge in UNRWA shelters in #Gaza. pic.twitter.com/ART97H0LGd\n\u2014 UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 17, 2014\n\nThat number, Sami Mshasha, a spokesperson with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) tells Mashable from the Gaza Strip, only represents a fraction of the overall total of internally displaced persons in Gaza.\n\u201CThere is a much larger number of people from the border areas who sought refuge with family, friends,\u201D he says. \u201CMany of them are in mosques, others in public buildings. A good number of the mosques here were destroyed, a good number of buildings were destroyed,\u201D he adds, saying that he expects the number of displaced people to rise significantly, if a cease-fire deal isn\u2019t reached in the next few days.\n\nOn the 10th day of the crisis in #Gaza, 22,000 Palestinian civilians are taking shelter in 24 UNRWA schools. pic.twitter.com/HC8aU7crj8\n\u2014 UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 17, 2014\n\nOn Wednesday, during a regular inspection of its facilities, the UNRWA says it discovered approximately 20 rockets hidden in a school in the Gaza Strip. \nUNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness tweeted that the relief agency strongly condemns the group responsible \u2014 presumed by many to be Hamas \u2014 calling the incident \u201Ca flagrant violation of the inviolability of its premises under international law\u201D that \u201Cendangered civilians including staff and put at risk UNRWA\u2019s vital mission to assist and protect Palestine refugees in Gaza.\u201D\nAside from issues over shelter, those refugees also are struggling to find food, water and basic health services, a result, Sami says, of the eight-year blockage on Gaza that\u2019s only intensified during the week-long flare in violence between the two sides.\n\u201CThe situation over all is rather miserable and the destruction is massive,\u201D says Sami. \u201CThe health situation in Gaza is in bad, bad shape. The major hospitals here are reporting shortages in basic health items, and many of those injured cannot be moved even if we did manage to evacuate them.\u201D \nDue to a serious deficit in fuel supplies, infrastructure that supports water, sewage and hospitals are basically shut down. \n\u201CWe are extremely worried about fact that before the current crisis 90% of drinking water in Gaza\u2019s aquifer was deemed not fit for human consumption,\u201D the relief agency\u2019s spokesperson says. \n\n#Gaza's infrastructure was already damaged by blockade. Now, water &amp; sewerage networks that were barely functioning before are destroyed.\n\u2014 UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 16, 2014\n\n\u201CThe fact that there is no diesel to power the electricity grid means that the raw sewage goes untreated, so every day 90,000 liters of whole, untreated sewage goes into the sea.\u201D\n\u201CGod knows what goes underground, contaminating what is already contaminated drinking water.\u201D\nAnd then there\u2019s the food shortages \u2014 the agency says it is supplying nearly one million Gazans with food. \n\nAs part of regular operations, we continue to distribute food to 830,000 refugees in #Gaza. pic.twitter.com/Z53vGzLh4H\n\u2014 UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 16, 2014\n\nThese are people, Sami says, who used to be middle class who now come to the agency seeking bags of flour, sugar and rice. Over the past 48 hours, the agency helped distribute 6,000 50-piece bread packets, and approximately 18,000 tins of tuna, sent to Gaza by the United Nations\u2019 World Food Programme.\nIt all adds up to an extremely difficult situation.\nNearly 60 UNRWA installations have been damaged since the violence resumed on June 1. Three of them \u2014 a health clinic, a boys school in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip and a girls school in Kahn Younis \u2014 were damaged in the past 48 hours.\nThe Israeli military has assured UNRWA that it will not target UN-identified refuge shelters. The UN's refugee agency has provided Israeli authorities with the GPS coordinates that identify the locations of 90 of them.\n\u201CWe are asking [Israeli] authorities to respect the fact that these are centers of refuge and safety,\" Sami says. \"We have trained staff who are capable of ensuring that these centers only accept civilians.\"\nHave something to add to this story? 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<http://mashable.com/2014/07/18/gaza-refugees-un-shelters/>