The Israeli navy has launched a brand new wave of air raids and artillery hearth in southern Gaza, forcing Palestinians to flee overcrowded Rafah upfront of a feared floor invasion that world leaders have condemned.
The United Nations humanitarian company, OCHA, stated on Thursday that folks, already displaced a number of occasions within the four-month battle, have been heading to Deir el-Balah and the Nuseirat refugee camp within the central Gaza Strip.
Rafah was a delegated “safe zone” and the final refuge for Palestinians compelled to flee Israel’s assaults by land, air and sea throughout the remainder of the enclave. An estimated 1.4 million Palestinians discovered some measure of safety there in tents and makeshift shelters.
UN assist chief Martin Griffiths warned that Palestinians in Rafah is likely to be compelled into Egypt if Israel launches its deliberate navy operation in opposition to the border metropolis.
“The possibility of a military operation in Rafah, with the possibility of the [border] crossing closing down, with the possibility of spillover … a sort of Egyptian nightmare … is one that is right before our eyes,” Griffiths advised diplomats on the UN in Geneva on Thursday.
He stated the notion that folks in Gaza may evacuate to a secure place was an “illusion”.
“We must all hope that friends of Israel and those who care about Israel’s security give them good counsel at this moment,” Griffiths added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his objective on Wednesday to eradicate Hamas by all means, together with a navy operation in Rafah.
“We will fight until complete victory, and this includes a powerful action also in Rafah after we allow the civilian population to leave the battle zones,” he stated.
Mirjana Spoljaric, the pinnacle of the Worldwide Committee of the Pink Cross (ICRC), stated the absence of a transparent evacuation plan, together with for the sick and aged, would convey struggling to a brand new degree.
“The suffering on both sides, the carnage we have seen since the seventh of October, will reach unimaginable depths if operations on Rafah are intensified the way they have been announced,” Spoljaric stated.
As Israeli forces are additionally engaged in navy operations in central and northern Gaza, any mass motion additional north could be fraught with hazard.
On Thursday, the Israeli military stormed the Nasser Hospital, the primary medical facility in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
The navy described the assault as “precise and limited”, including it was based mostly on “credible information” that Hamas fighters have been hiding within the facility and stored captives there. A spokesperson for Hamas denied the allegations, calling them “lies”.
There was heavy tank and machinegun hearth as troops entered the complicated after ordering occupants to evacuate.
Reporting from Rafah, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud stated earlier that Israeli forces “bulldozed” the southern fence of the hospital on Thursday and moved to the primary constructing, rounding up “doctors and nurses inside”.
“The Israeli military is preventing them from treating any of the many wounded. Right now, people are being attacked inside Nasser Hospital,” he stated.
On Wednesday, Israel stated it had opened a safe hall for displaced folks to depart the hospital however allowed docs and sufferers to stay.
The medical charity Docs With out Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) stated folks ordered by Israel to evacuate confronted an unimaginable alternative to remain “and become a potential target”, or depart “into an apocalyptic landscape” of bombings.
Mohamad Elmasry, a professor on the Doha Institute for Graduate Research, advised Al Jazeera that Israel’s siege of the hospital and its plans to maneuver into Rafah are all components of the “same story” and Israel has been “seeking to make life unlivable for Palestinians”.
The Ministry of Well being in Gaza stated no less than 28,663 folks have been killed in Israel’s assaults because the begin of the struggle, and no less than 68,395 have been wounded. It stated 87 Palestinians have been killed and 104 wounded over the previous 24 hours.