Misery deepens in Gaza’s Rafah as Israeli troops press operation
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Aid workers are struggling to distribute dwindling food and other supplies to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by what Israel says is a limited operation in Rafah, as the two main crossings near the southern Gaza city remain closed.
The United Nations’ agency for Palestinian refugees said 360,000 people have fled Rafah over the last week, out of 1.3 million who were sheltering there before the operation began, most of whom had already fled fighting elsewhere over the course of the seven-month war between Israel and Hamas.
Israel has portrayed Rafah as the last stronghold of the militant group, brushing off warnings from the United States and other allies that any major operation there would be catastrophic for civilians. Hamas has meanwhile regrouped in some of the most devastated parts of Gaza that Israel previously claimed to have cleared with heavy bombardment and ground operations.
U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Monday that an additional 100,000 Palestinians have been displaced in northern Gaza after recent Israeli evacuation orders there. That would mean about a fifth of the Gaza Strip’s population of 2.3 million people have been displaced over the last week.
Thirty-eight trucks of flour arrived through the western Erez crossing, a second access point to northern Gaza, Abeer Etefa, a spokeswoman for the U.N.’s World Food Program, said Monday. Israel had announced the opening of the crossing on Sunday.
But no food has entered the two main crossings in southern Gaza for the last week.
Egypt issued its strongest objection to the Rafah offensive, saying it will join South Africa’s case at the International Court alleging Israel is committing genocide.
The Rafah crossing into Egypt has been closed since Israeli troops seized it a week ago. Fighting in Rafah city has made it impossible for aid groups to access the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, though Israel says it is allowing supply trucks to enter from its side.
For the last week, the Israeli military has intensified bombardment and other operations in Rafah, while ordering the population to evacuate from parts of the city. Israel insists it is a limited operation focused on rooting out tunnels and other militant infrastructure along the border with Egypt.
Israeli forces were also battling Palestinian militants in Zeitoun and the urban Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, areas where the army had launched major operations earlier in the war.
Etefa said the WFP is distributing food from its remaining stocks in the areas of Khan Yunis and Deir al Balah farther north, to which many of those escaping Rafah have fled.
In Rafah, only two organizations partnering with WFP were still able to distribute food, and no bakeries were operating.
“The majority of distributions have stopped due to the evacuation orders, displacement, and running out of food,†Etefa said. “The situation is becoming increasingly unsustainable.â€
The Israeli military plans to direct many of the 1.4 million displaced Palestinians in Rafah toward ‘humanitarian islands’ in the territory’s center.
Israeli protesters halted a convoy of aid bound for Gaza at a checkpoint between the occupied West Bank and Israel. Videos circulating online showed them hurling some of the aid off trucks and destroying it. Police said a number of arrests were made, without elaborating.
Almost the entire population of Gaza relies on humanitarian groups’ distribution of food and other supplies to survive. Amid Israeli restrictions and obstacles to aid distribution due to violence, about 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza face catastrophic levels of hunger and are on the brink of starvation, and a “full-blown famine†is taking place in the north, according to the U.N.
The director of the Kuwait Hospital, one of the last functioning medical centers in Rafah, said medical staff and residents living near the facility have been told to evacuate. Dr. Sohaib al-Hams warned that any evacuation of the hospital would have “catastrophic consequences.â€
The international charity Oxfam, meanwhile, warned of disease outbreaks in Gaza after an estimated $210 million worth of damage to water and sanitation infrastructure, mass displacement and the onset of summer.
“Oxfam staff in Gaza have described piles of human waste and rivers of sewage in the streets, which people are having to jump between. They also reported people having to drink dirty water and children being bitten by insects swarming around the sewage,†it said in a statement.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 240 hostages. Militants still hold about 100 captives and the remains of more than 30 after most of the rest were released during a cease-fire last year.
Gazans crammed into Rafah along the Egyptian border have no place to escape as Israeli attacks hit ever closer in a final bid to rescue remaining hostages.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed more than 13,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Israel marked an especially somber Memorial Day on Monday, with ceremonies across the country commemorating fallen soldiers, including the more than 600 killed since Oct. 7, most in the initial attack.
At a ceremony at Mount Herzl cemetery on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed once again to defeat Hamas.
“We exacted and will exact a high price from the enemy for their criminal acts. We will realize the goals of victory and at the center of them the return of all our hostages,†he said.
Protesters and hecklers interrupted some of the ceremonies, reflecting growing discontent with the country’s leaders that has brought thousands of protesters into the streets in recent months. Critics blame Netanyahu for the security and intelligence failures that allowed the attack to happen and for the failure to reach a deal with Hamas to release the hostages.
With warnings of ‘imminent’ famine in Gaza, there is a global push to get more aid to Palestinians amid the Israel-Hamas war. What are the roadblocks?
Months of internationally mediated talks for a cease-fire and hostage release ground to an apparent standstill last week after Israel launched its incursion into Rafah. Israel has refused Hamas’ central demand for an end to the war and the withdrawal of its forces from the territory, saying that doing so would allow the militant group to regain control and launch more Oct. 7-style attacks.
President Biden’s administration, which has provided crucial military and diplomatic support for the offensive, has expressed growing impatience, saying it won’t supply offensive arms for a full-scale Rafah assault.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken warned Sunday that Israel could face an “enduring insurgency†if it doesn’t come up with a realistic plan for postwar governance in Gaza. Israel has rejected U.S. proposals for the Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza with help from Arab states because those plans depend on progress toward the establishment of a Palestinian state, which Netanyahu opposes.
Shurafa, Krauss and Magdy write for the Associated Press. Krauss reported from Jerusalem and Magdy from Cairo. AP writer Lee Keath in Cairo and Jack Jeffery in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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