The war between Palestine and Israel has caused hundreds of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to flee the Middle East and Africa in search of a better life in Europe, according to The Associated Press.
Palestinians aware of the tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border say between 1,500 and 2,000 Gazans have left the enclave in the past four or five months, looking to board boats in Egypt and escape across the Mediterranean sea, the AP reported.
"The number of people with whom families in Gaza have lost contact is around 400," said Khalil Abu Shammal, director of the territory's Ad-Dameer Association for Human Rights, according to the AP. "Measures are required to stop such travel towards death and the unknown."
In the worst incident last week, as many as 500 migrants are believed to have died after traffickers rammed their ship off Malta's coast, the International Organisation for Migration said on Monday, the AP reported. Those on board included Palestinians, Syrians, Egyptians and Sudanese.
Both Israel and Egypt maintain blockades of the Gaza Strip where 1.8 million Palestinians live, according to the AP.
The area is dominated by Hamas, an Islamist movement which Israel and the West regard as a terrorist group and Cairo views with deep suspicion, the AP reported.
Unemployment in the area is around 50 percent, but many Palestinians in need receive aid from a United Nations agency tasked for decades with their welfare, meaning there is no generalized humanitarian crisis, according to the AP.
So far, more than 2,100 Palestinians were killed, many of them civilians, and tens of thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed in the fighting that also claimed the lives of 67 Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel, the AP reported.
