Rafah is “a city of children who have nowhere safe to go,” says the UNICEF representative. The head of the Norwegian Refugee Council calls for intervention from Israel’s allies.
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The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned this Monday about the “Catastrophic risks” faced by some 600,000 children in Rafahin the southern Gaza Strip, in the face of planned Israeli attacks on the city.
“If large-scale military operations are launched, children will not only be in danger of violence, but also of chaos and panic, at a time when their physical and mental state is already weakened,” lamented the executive director of Unicef, Catherine Russell Russell. , in a sentence.
Russell described Rafah as “a city of children who have nowhere safe to go”.
“Hundreds of thousands of boys and girls now crowded into Rafah and are injured, sick, malnourished, traumatized or living with disabilities,” Russell said, calling for “protection” and basic facilities and services for Palestinian children.
Before the war, about 250,000 people lived in Rafah, but the UN estimates that there are now 1.2 million in that city, most from other areas of the Palestinian enclave.
Overpopulation is so great that there are around 20,000 people per square kilometer, a density that is double that of New York City.
The UN already estimates that almost eight thousand children under two years of age suffer from acute malnutrition in Rafah, while around 175 thousand children under five years of age, nine out of ten, suffer from at least one infectious disease.
The secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, fears that The large-scale offensive on Rafah represents “the deadliest phase” of a conflict. which has already claimed more than 34,000 lives, according to the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
According to the latest data from this Palestinian Ministry, more than 14,000 of these victims were children.
Egeland stressed, in a statement, that the The withdrawal orders in Rafah issued today by the Israeli army are “beyond alarming”As it is an overpopulated area and those affected have no “guarantees of safety, shelter or return.”
Israel calls on civilians to leave east of Rafah. A “limited scope” military operation will be imminent after the negotiations stall
This situation, according to the head of the Norwegian Council, can be compared to forced displacement.
“Any Israeli military operation in Rafah, which has become the largest group of displaced persons camps in the world, could lead to mass atrocities.” Egeland added.
The head of the Norwegian Refugee Council also criticized the role of Israel’s international allies who, after months in which they “failed to contain the indiscriminate attacks against Gaza”, failed once again to prevent the offensive on Rafah.
In this sense, Egeland called on Israel’s allied countries to “assume their responsibility” and work to ensure that international humanitarian law is respected.
The director of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, declared today in social network that an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah would represent “an additional layer to an already unbearable tragedy.”
#Loop: Israeli authorities continue to deny humanitarian access to the United Nations.
This same week I was denied – for the second time – my entry into Gaza, where I had planned to be with our @OOPS teams, including those on the front lines.
The past while a…
—Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) May 5, 2024
A ground offensive in Rafah “will make it even more difficult to reverse the spread of a man-made famine,” Lazzarini said.
“What is needed is a ceasefire now, not new forced displacement and more anxiety over endless suffering,” the UNRWA director added.
Source: Observadora
