DIRE CONDITIONS IN RAFAH AS ISRAEL PREPARES ATTACK
Aid lorries looted for first time, UN agency says, while US and allies revive efforts to halt fighting
Israel’s military has intensified air strikes on Rafah, with a series of bombings that killed almost 100 Palestinians.
This came as Israeli troops rescued two hostages in an overnight raid in the city in southern Gaza.
Israel has turned its sights on Rafah, despite warnings that about 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering in the city with nowhere else to go.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees described Rafah as “an extraordinarily challenging environment”, and said its lorries delivering aid had been looted for the first time on Sunday, as police refused to protect them out of fear for their lives.
“For the first time, the UN couldn’t operate with a minimum of protection which was the local police. Because we had no local police, our convoy trucks at the border have been looted,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said in Brussels.
Mr Lazzarini warned that it was “absolutely critical” that the organisation receive EU funding by the end of the month. Donors followed the US in suspending funding, in response to Israeli allegations that 12 UNRWA members took part in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks.
In Rafah, the Gazan Ministry of Health said bodies were being left on hospital floors because morgues were full, as Israeli strikes killed at least 93 Palestinians.
The rescue of two hostages by Israeli forces was described by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “one of the most successful rescue operations in the history of the state of Israel”. The army identified the two hostages as Fernando Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70, saying they were kidnapped from Nir Yitzhak kibbutz.
Negotiations to achieve a new pause in fighting and second hostage exchange are set to resume in Cairo today, as part of mediation attempts involving the US, Qatar and Egypt.
More than 93 people were killed by air strikes on Rafah on Sunday night, as the overcrowded city prepares for an Israeli incursion that many in Gaza and around the world believe would have devastating consequences.
“Every square kilometre in Rafah contains between 25,000 to 27,000 people, which means a military operation would be catastrophic,” Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Dr Ashraf Al Qudra told The
National yesterday.
The number of people injured in the strikes exceeds the capacity of the city’s hospitals, and emergency services personnel were still pulling people out from under the rubble, he said.
Footage of the strikes, published by the Palestinian news agency Wafa, showed smoke filling the night sky amid the sound of explosions.
The Israeli military later confirmed that it had carried out a “series of strikes” on southern Gaza.
The strikes caused widespread panic in Rafah, where many people were sleeping when the attack began. Some feared Israel had begun its anticipated ground incursion into the city.
Some have considered moving north towards Deir Al Balah in central Gaza, but that area is still a frequent target of Israeli air strikes.
“So where should we go? They want us to only think about going towards the border to go to Sinai, but we will not go to Sinai,” Ola Handoqa, 39, told The National.
Yousef Barak, from Rafah’s Al Shabora neighbourhood, said his uncle’s home was hit during the strikes.
“I went to see the damage. I found bodies of martyrs scattered everywhere,” Mr Barak said. He had found eight bodies “belonging to women and children”, he added. “These are civilians who were sleeping peacefully,” he said.
The UN said about 1.4 million Palestinians are crowded into Rafah, many of them living in tents, with food, water and medicine becoming increasingly scarce.
Dr Al Qudra said food had run out for staff, patients and displaced people at Al Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. The shelling around the medical complex had also caused “the ceilings in the housing units and operations department to fall”, he said yesterday.
“Nobody is able to move in the complex’s yard as Israeli snipers are stationed nearby,” he said. The attacks had killed at least seven civilians in the hospital, and injured at least 14, he added.
The shelling also damaged the hospital’s sewerage system, causing sewage to seep into the complex.
Dr Al Qudra said a technical team must be granted urgent access to move safely between the hospital’s buildings and fix the damage.
Israel’s air and ground campaign in Gaza has killed more than 28,300 people and wounded almost 68,000, the enclave’s Health Ministry said yesterday.
The war began on October 7, when Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza, killed about 1,200 people and abducted about 240 during attacks on southern Israel.
The army usually orders civilians to leave their homes and towns before launching strikes, but does not provide any specific evacuation plans.
In a statement yesterday, Hamas condemned the strikes on Rafah and accused Israel of attempting to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the military to prepare to enter Rafah. He said on Sunday that “enough” of the estimated 130 remaining hostages were still alive to justify an incursion into the city.
US President Joe Biden has urged Mr Netanyahu to protect civilians from harm during its military operation in the city.
Israel should not proceed without a “credible and executable plan” to ensure Gazans’ safety, Mr Biden said on Sunday.
Some in Rafah have considered going to Deir Al Balah in central Gaza, but that area is also hit frequently by air strikes
Yesterday’s Israeli military attack on the southern Gazan city of Rafah helped lead to the release of two hostages. Although their families will be relieved that their loved ones were rescued, there are thousands of other families in mourning in Palestine and Israel. The fact that it took place under the cover of Israeli bombardment that killed dozens of people calls into question any suggestion that some kind of surgical counter-terrorism operation is under way.
According to the UN, Rafah – originally home to 250,000 people – is where half of Gaza’s population of more than two million people is now crammed. This “unprecedented population density” makes it “nearly impossible to protect civilians in the event of ground attacks”, the UN humanitarian affairs office said on Friday. Civilians’ vulnerability to air strikes was made painfully clear in the incident.
And it is not just the direct effect of bombs and bullets that take the lives of non-combatants. According to the Centre for Civilians in Conflict, an NGO, the use of explosive weapons with wide-area effect “often cause irreparable damage to essential services, with enduring impacts on civilians’ health, safety and well-being”. Even if an invasion and direct occupation of Rafah were to be called off, the Israeli military’s bombardment of Gaza has already made life intolerable for nearly two million people.
So far, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is resisting pressure from allies to rethink a ground invasion of this overcrowded, impoverished refuge. In an interview with American broadcaster ABC, Mr Netanyahu said a plan was being worked out to establish safe passage for Palestinian civilians. Given that a World Bank report last month found that 45 per cent of residential buildings in Gaza are ruined beyond repair, this begs the question: safe passage to where?
The bitter truth here is that negotiations have secured the release of many more Israeli hostages than military operations. Worryingly, Mr Netanyahu’s focus on “absolute victory” reveals how some key elements of the country’s leadership are captivated by a mirage that ultimately puts the hostages in more danger, deepens Palestinians’ resolve to resist and increases the likelihood of the wider regional conflict sparked by Gaza continuing.
It is also true that Hamas has not shown itself to have a high regard for civilian life. The militants’ attacks on October 7 were indiscriminate, and their kidnapping of hundreds of Israelis, including children, cannot be excused. By continuing to operate amid Gaza’s civilians, they knowingly brought on a response from an Israeli security establishment for whom the welfare of Palestinian civilians is a non-issue.
There is time to avoid the inevitable disaster of a full-scale attack on the city. Meetings have been taking place this week between some of the region’s leading figures. Those in Israel’s leadership who are taking the country deeper into a military, political and diplomatic cul-desac would do well to heed the words coming from allies and neighbours. Rafah cannot sustain more bloodshed or attacks.