Following Israel’s order to evacuate eastern Rafahfears increase of an Israeli incursion into that southern Gaza enclave, where 1.4 million displaced people crowded there may suffer “massive atrocities”warned the NGO Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
“The military offensive of Israel in Rafah could lead to the phase deadliest of this conflictinflicting horrific suffering on approximately 1.4 million displaced civilians in the area,” said NRC Secretary-General Jan Egeland, former United Nations humanitarian chief.
According to the NGO, Rafah has become the last refuge for hundreds of thousands of Gazan families who have fled hostilities in the north, so in the face of such an Israeli military offensive they face the threat of prolonged displacement and death.
In addition, the NGO warned that Al-Mawasi, the humanitarian zone designated by the Israeli army to relocate evacuees, “is already overwhelmed” and lacks guarantees of security, accommodation or easy return once the hostilities end.
“The aid system is doomed to collapse, leaving those fleeing advancing Israeli forces vulnerable to hunger and suffering,” Egeland said.
Also this Monday, a group of UN experts, including the rapporteur on violence against women, Reem Alsalem, were “horrified” with recent discoveries of mass graves with at least 390 bodies, including women and children, along with the Gazan hospitals of Nasser and Al Shifa.
According to experts, many of the bodies showed “signs of torture and summary executions,” and there was even evidence that some of those people were possibly buried alive.
Egypt calls for ‘maximum restraint’ from Israel in the face of possible invasion of Rafah
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry called on Israel to exercise “maximum restraint” and warned against possible Israeli invasion of Rafahat the southern end of the Gaza Stripwhich could dynamit the already weakened negotiation process to reach a truce with the Islamist group Hamas.
“Egypt urged Israel to exercise maximum restraint and avoid further escalation at this extremely delicate moment in the negotiations process for reach a ceasefire“, Egyptian Foreign Affairs said in a statement, in which it warned “of the dangers of a possible Israeli military operation” in Rafah.
The department recalled in the note that an invasion against this town, bordering Egypt and where some 1.4 million people are crowded, would entail “serious humanitarian risks”, for which it asked to “save the blood of Palestinian civilians who “They have been exposed to an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.”
Likewise, Foreign Affairs confirmed that Egypt is intensifying its contacts “with all parties in order to prevent the situation from worsening or getting out of control.”
