Israel on Friday faced renewed calls from a key ally of the United States against launching a large-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are trapped.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted he would press ahead with a “powerful” operation in the overcrowded city to achieve “total victory” over the militant group Hamas.
The White House said US President Joe Biden spoke by phone with Netanyahu on Thursday evening, urging him not to launch an attack on Rafah without a plan to protect civilians.
Hundreds of thousands of people were driven to Rafah, seeking shelter in a sprawling makeshift camp near the Egyptian border.
The city now hosts more than half of Gaza’s population, with displaced people “crammed” into less than 20 percent of the territory, according to the UN aid agency OCHA.
Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have been going on for months without stopping. In addition to the attacks, the people of Gaza face starvation due to Israeli blockades in the besieged Palestinian enclave.
Thousands of Palestinians face the danger of hunger and thirst in the Gaza Strip, which is exposed to brutal Israeli attacks.
The photos coming from Rafah in Gaza are heartbreaking, showing children waiting for food distributed by humanitarian organizations.
28,576 Palestinians were killed and 68,291 were injured in the attacks on the Gaza Strip by Israel, accused of genocide, on the 7th.
According to United Nations data, due to the Israeli offensive, 85 percent of the population of the Gaza Strip has been internally displaced and faces an acute shortage of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60 percent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.
United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Coordinator Martin Griffiths expressed concern over a possible Israeli attack on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, which has become home to more than a million residents seeking refuge from the war.
“Today I sound the alarm again: military operations in Rafah could lead to carnage in Gaza. They could also leave an already fragile humanitarian operation ‘at death’s door,’” Griffiths said.
He added that more than half of Gaza’s population was “crammed into Rafah and facing death.”
“They have little food, hardly any access to medical care, nowhere to sleep, nowhere safe to go,” Griffiths stressed.
The Israeli military plans to launch a ground offensive in Rafah to defeat what Tel Aviv calls the remaining “Hamas battalions.” The planned offensive has raised concerns about a humanitarian disaster.
According to Griffiths, the international community is warning of the “dangerous consequences” of a ground invasion of Rafah.
“The government of Israel cannot continue to ignore these calls. History will not be kind. This war must end,” Griffiths said.
Israel launched an offensive on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on October 7.
On January 26, following a genocide lawsuit filed by the Republic of South Africa, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel must refrain from any actions related to the killing, attacks and destruction of the residents of the Gaza Strip and take all measures to prevent genocide.
However, Israeli forces continue to attack the Gaza Strip.
In 128 days, 28,473 Palestinians were killed in Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip, AA writes.
