“More than 263,934 people in Gaza are believed to have fled their homes,” UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in an update on Tuesday. He warned that “this number is expected to increase further”.
It said some 3,000 people had been displaced before Saturday “due to previous tensions”.
More than 1,000 people have been killed in Israel in the worst attack in the country’s 75-year history, while Gaza authorities have reported 900 dead since the airstrikes began.
OCHA, citing Palestinian officials, said the bombing campaign had destroyed more than 1,000 housing units, and left 560 so severely damaged that they were uninhabitable.
It said some 175,500 of those displaced had sought shelter in 88 schools run by UNRWA, the United Nations agency that supports Palestinian refugees.