The Latest | Nearly half a million people flee fighting in Rafah and northern Gaza, UN says

The United Nations says nearly half a million Palestinians have been displaced in recent days by escalating Israeli military operations in both southern and northern Gaza. Palestinian officials say Israeli strikes in central Gaza killed at least 12 people overnight and into Tuesday. Aid workers are struggling to distribute dwindling supplies to Palestinians in makeshift tent camps facing catastrophic levels of hunger. The United Nations’ agency for Palestinian refugees says around 360,000 Palestinians were driven from the southern Gaza city of Rafah over the past week. The U.N. said Monday that 100,000 people were displaced so far by Israeli evacuation orders in northern Gaza. Israeli forces are battling militants in northern areas despite launching major operations earlier in the war.