The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip remains dire todaywhere nearly a million and a half people, packed into Rafah, are under threat as a full-scale Israeli ground operation looms, as the strong possibility looms of a new deadlock in the UN Security Councilwhich will consider a draft decision in which the request to immediately declare a ceasefire.
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), in Rafah there are almost 1.5 million Palestinians, more than half of the enclave’s population (2.4 million). Their numbers have increased sixfold since the outbreak of war on October 7 as hundreds of thousands of displaced people have flocked to it.
The city, on the closed border with Egypt, is subjected to daily aerial bombardment by the Israeli armed forces, who say they are preparing for a ground attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu describes Rafah as Hamas’s “last stronghold” and says he is determined to continue the offensive “until total victory.”
On the night of Monday to Tuesday, the Israeli bombardment was concentrated in the eastern part of the Gaza Strip and in Khan Younis (south), a few kilometers from Rafah, an AFP journalist found on the ground.
Nine children out of ten sick
After some twenty weeks of war, UN agencies are sounding the alarm regarding the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.
As they point out, food and drinking water are increasingly scarce and 90% of young children are infected with infectious diseases.
“The Gaza Strip is headed for an explosion in the number of preventable child deaths,” which would “exacerbate the already intolerable level of child deaths” there, said Ted Chaiban, deputy director of humanitarian operations at the Israel Fund. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
“My children are starving, they wake up crying,” said a mother in an IDP camp in the northern Gaza Strip. “Where can I get food for them?”
“Missiles are falling, how long can a human being last?” wondered Ayman Abu Samali, who was injured when he was struck stationary in Zawayda, in the central part of the Gaza Strip. “People in the north are dying of hunger, we are dying of bombing.”
The war was sparked by an unprecedented attack launched on October 7 by Hamas’ military arm once morest southern Israel, which killed more than 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data. Another 250 or so were kidnapped and taken to the Palestinian enclave.
In retaliation, the Israeli army launched an attack that has killed at least 29,092 people in the Gaza Strip, the vast majority of them women and children, according to Hamas’ health ministry.
According to Israeli sources, more than 130 Israeli hostages remain in the hands of Hamas in the Gaza Strip – an army spokesman recently stated that at least 31 of them are believed to be dead – of the approximately 250 kidnapped on October 7.
“If the hostages are not home by Ramadan, the fighting will continue everywhere, including the Rafah area,” threatened Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s wartime government, the day before Sunday.
“Hamas has a choice. (Its members) can surrender, release the hostages and the civilians in Gaza will be able to celebrate Ramadan,” he added.
Impasse ahead at the UN
The prospect of an attack on Rafah worries the international community. Twenty-six of the 27 EU member states yesterday called for an “immediate humanitarian pause”.
But the hopes that a new truce will be declared seem to be fading more and more.
The UN Security Council is expected to vote today on a new text, drawn up over the past few weeks by Algeria, calling for an “immediate” ceasefire. The US, Israel’s main ally, might veto the plan.
If indeed it is exercised, it will be the third since the outbreak of the war.
The most recent version of the text, which came to the attention of Agence France-Presse, “calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire that must be respected by all parties”, while rejecting “the forced displacement of the Palestinian civilian population” and demanding that it stop immediately the “violation of international law”, while Israel says it is considering an emergency evacuation of civilians ahead of an attack on Rafah if it does not see the release of all hostages immediately.
Washington made it clear that it does not consider Algeria’s draft resolution acceptable. “We don’t believe that (…) it would improve the situation on the ground, so if it is put to a vote it will not pass,” repeated US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood yesterday.
The US argues that the decision would jeopardize ongoing diplomatic negotiations to declare a new ceasefire, which would allow the release of hostages.
The American delegation released a competing draft resolution, the content of which was obtained by AFP on Monday. It refers to a “temporary suspension” of operations in the Gaza Strip as soon as this is “practicable” and on the basis of a “formula” that will include the release of “all” hostages.
The US draft resolution expresses concern regarding Rafa, warning that “a ground attack cannot take place under the current conditions”.
However, a diplomatic source noted, there is no chance that the alternative draft decision will be adopted as it is: it is certain that Russia will exercise a veto.
The Security Council, deeply divided over the issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for years, has only been able to adopt two resolutions on the issue, mainly of a humanitarian nature, since October 7th until today.
The most recent, adopted in a vote held in late December – the US allowed it to abstain – called for a “large-scale” distribution of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave. It has had no real response, as aid continues to trickle into the Gaza Strip and remains a drop in the ocean of need.
Source: RES-MPE
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