More than 300,000 are forced to flee Rafah
Fighting intensifies as US opposes ground offensive
Israeli tanks and troops pushed across a highway into Rafah on Monday as hundreds of thousands of residents fled some of the most intense fighting in weeks along the northern and southern edges of the Gaza Strip.
UNRWA, the U.N. aid agency in Gaza, estimated 360,000 people had fled the southern city of Rafah since the first evacuation order a week ago. Israel stepped up aerial and ground bombardments in eastern areas of the city while Palestinians packed cars, trucks and carts to flee the violence.
Aid groups warned the already alarming humanitarian crisis could grow more grave.
“The situation is dreadful and the sounds of explosions never stopped,” Bassam, 57, from the Shaboura neighborhood in Rafah, told Reuters via a chat app.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a phone call with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant late Sunday, “reaffirmed the U.S. opposition to a major military ground operation in Rafah,” the State Department said.
Fighting in Rafah has been ramping up for weeks, but now Israeli forces that left some northern areas months ago were back as part of a “mop-up” effort to prevent fighters from returning, the Israeli military said.
Palestinian health officials said they had recovered 20 bodies of Palestinians killed in the overnight airstrikes on Jabalia, a sprawling refugee camp in northern Gaza.
Israel’s military said in early January that it had “dismantled Hamas’ military framework in Jabalia,” although it expected to return to the area periodically to fight militants.
Palestinians say the need to return to earlier battlegrounds is proof Israel’s military objectives are unattainable.
Fewer women and children killed than reported, according to UN
The percentage of women and children killed during the war in Gaza is considerably lower than the nearly 70% the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry previously said, according to revised numbers published by the United Nations.
Relying on Health Ministry data, the U.N. on May 6 reported more than 14,500 children and 9,500 women among the 34,735 fatalities in Gaza, or 69% percent. Two days later, that figure was down to 52% − 7,797 children and 4,959 women out of a total of 24,686 fatalities for whom the ministry has complete details. The rest were categorized as men and elderly people.
Ministry officials, who don’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in their tally, recently acknowledged they don’t have enough identifying information for more than 11,000 Palestinians they say were killed in Gaza as a result of the war.
However, their total of approximately 35,000 deaths in the territory remains the same.
UN staffer killed in Rafah
A United Nations Safety and Security worker was killed and another wounded Monday when their vehicle was attacked while traveling to the European Hospital in Rafah, according to a statement from U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq.
No details were immediately released.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, who has called for an investigation, “condemns all attacks on UN personnel” and sends his condolences to the family of the fallen staff member, the statement said.
“With the conflict in Gaza continuing to take a heavy toll – not only on civilians, but also on humanitarian workers – the Secretary-General reiterates his urgent appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and for the release of all hostages,” Haq stated.