Displaced Palestinians face dire living conditions in Rafah, UN says
Displaced Gazans are being forced to live in “squalid conditions” in Rafah, the enclave’s southernmost city, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said.
The agency’s deputy commissioner general of programmes and partnerships Natalie Boucly said she had been struck by the “extent, scale and consequences” of Israel’s military operation during her most recent visit to the enclave.
“I have seen people, women in particular, who bear the brunt of the crisis, living in squalid conditions. There is an offensive smell in Rafah, along the sea because there is no sewage system any more,” Ms Boucly told delegates at the European Humanitarian Forum yesterday.
On average, 30,000 people have sought refuge in each of the UNRWA’s shelters throughout Gaza, she said.
“There’s on average 5,500 people for one shower, 888 people for one toilet,” Ms Boucly said.
“How can you live in these conditions? It’s very difficult.”
She talked about the financial issues that have faced the UNRWA since January, when several countries withdrew financial support for the agency after Israel alleged that some of its employees had taken part in the October 7 attacks by Hamas.
Ms Boucly thanked countries that have since resumed funding, including Australia, Canada and Sweden, as well as those that did not suspend it. However, she said, 13 countries still have not resumed support for the UNRWA.
“The impact of that is $365 million that we are unable to account for,” she said.
“Under the current state of affairs we will be OK doing our operations until the end of April, perhaps beginning of May. But how do you plan? We shouldn’t be placed in this situation today when there is a humanitarian crisis unfolding.”
During the same forum, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell accused Israel of “using starvation as a weapon of war”, and said Gaza is “now in a state of famine”.
Unicef’s deputy executive director Ted Chaiban told delegates that children in the enclave are dying “a slow painful death” as a result of food and water shortages.
“We know of 23 children in the north of the Gaza Strip, according to reports we have received from hospitals, who have died due to malnutrition and dehydration,” he said. “And that would be the tip of the iceberg. Those would be the children who actually got to the hospital, [not] the children who have died silently at home or in communities when they didn’t get to the hospital.”
He cited recent figures that suggested 31 per cent of children in northern Gaza were suffering from acute malnourishment, up 15 per cent from January.
In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, the figure is 8 per cent, “which is high but manageable and below the threshold level”, Mr Chaiban added.
“There, you have better access to humanitarian assistance and some commercial trucks,” he said. “That just goes to show it is something that can be addressed if access is opened up.”
Mr Chaiban described the displacement of most of Gaza’s population into Rafah a “deliberate squeezing” of humanitarian space.
He called for an immediate ceasefire, which should include the return of all hostages being held by Hamas.
Mr Chaiban warned that a military incursion into Rafah, which Israel has been planning for weeks, would have “consequences beyond being manageable”.
“I don’t want to contemplate what it looks like,” he added.