"There is an electricity crisis, food crisis, water crisis, a crisis of everything," Eyad Abu Mutlaq, 45, said in Khan Younis in south Gaza, a region filling up with thousands of people fleeing the north for fear of an Israeli invasion. The flood of people arriving in south Gaza after Israel told them on Friday to leave an area in the north has stretched resources that were already strained to breaking point. The United Nations has urged Israel to "avert a humanitarian catastrophe" in Gaza, a slither of land with 2.3 million people wedged between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. In its response to the devastating Oct. 7 assault from Gaza by Palestinian militant group Hamas, Israel has imposed a "total blockade" halting food supplies and cutting electricity to Gaza. U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday he was making it a priority to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, working with Israel, Egypt, Jordan, other Arab states and the U.N.

---

Persons: Khan Younis, Mohammed Salem, Abu Mutlaq, Israel, Philippe Lazzarini, Joe Biden, Ashraf Al, Qidra, Adel Shaheen, ”, Michael Georgy, Edmund Blair Organizations: Hamas, REUTERS, United Nations, UNRWA, Gaza Health, Thomson Locations: Israel, Palestinian, Gaza, GAZA, Egypt, Um Salem, Jordan