The town of Rafah on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt was home to over a million people forcibly displaced by nearly eight months of daily bombardments by the Israeli army in response to the Hamas-led terror attack in southern Israel on October 7.
“Thousands of families are now sheltering in damaged and destroyed facilities in Khan YounisWhere UNRWA continues to provide essential services despite increasing challenges. The circumstances are unspeakable,” the UN agency said in a message on X, formerly Twitter.
Biden movement
This development comes three days after US President Joe Biden unveiled a ceasefire proposal based on a phased end to the war, which would reportedly include the withdrawal of Israeli forces from built-up areas, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, along with a plan for ending the war. Reconstruction of Gaza.
According to UNRWA, thousands of families have been forced to seek shelter in badly damaged buildings in Khan Younis. The city, just north of Rafah, is estimated to be home to around 1.7 million people. All 36 UNRWA shelters in Rafah are now emptyit reported.
The UN agency has continued to provide basic humanitarian assistance despite increasingly difficult circumstances, as illustrated by a photo of a young girl sitting alone on a rubble-strewn stairwell and another showing huge piles of rubble and twisted metal next to a largely undamaged building.
About 690,000 women and girls are believed to lack basic menstrual hygiene, privacy and drinking water kits, UNRWA said.
No place for a baby
UNRWA highlighted the daily struggles faced by extremely vulnerable people in Gaza and cited the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) estimate that approximately 18,500 pregnant women have been forced to flee Rafah. “About 10,000 others remain there in desperate conditions.” the UN agency said of X. “Access to health care and maternal services is minimal. The health of mothers and babies is at risk.”
‘Beyond the crisis’
Echoing these deep concerns, the UN World Food Program (WFP) said there is now “little we can do for those still in Rafah,” where roads “are unsafe, access is limited and most of our partners and other humanitarian organizations are displaced.”
In an alarming update on the exodus from Rafah since the escalation of the Israeli military operation there, a senior WFP official warned that public health concerns have now become more serious. “Beyond crisis levels”while “the sounds, the smells, the daily life are horrific and apocalyptic”.
People have “fled to areas where clean water, medical facilities and support are insufficient, food supplies are limited and telecommunications have stopped,” said Matthew Hollingworth, WFP Country Director in Palestine.
Call for recognition of Palestine
In support of repeated international calls for an immediate ceasefire, leading human rights experts say insisted All countries must recognize the state of Palestine, as 146 UN member states have already done.
“This recognition is an important recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people and their struggle and suffering for freedom and independence,” the experts said in a statement on Monday.
They noted that the State of Palestine – formally proclaimed by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on November 15, 1988 – claimed sovereignty over the remaining parts of historic Palestine that Israel occupied in 1967: the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip .
Since May 28, 2024, the State of Palestine has been recognized by the majority of UN member states, including most recently Ireland, Norway and Spain.
The rights experts, who are not UN staff, but report to the UN Council for Human Rightsstressed that Palestine must be able to “enjoy full self-determination, including the ability to exist.”
These rights are “a precondition for lasting peace in Palestine and the entire Middle East – starting with the immediate declaration of a ceasefire in Gaza and no further military incursions in Rafah,” they asserted.
The experts highlighted the latest ruling by the UN Supreme Court ordering Israel to halt military operations in Rafah, adding that the arrest warrants sought by the prosecutor’s office International Criminal Court against the Israeli Prime Minister, Defense Minister and Hamas leaders on suspicion of war crimes was “a promise of accountability and an end to impunity in the occupied Palestinian territory.”