At least five people have been killed and another 22 injured this Wednesday in an attack on a food distribution center of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip. . The agency has blamed the Israeli army for the attack on its facilities, where food and humanitarian aid is distributed to the more than two million displaced Gazans, and has assured that at least one organization worker, a police officer and three civilians have died. However, Israel claims that the target of the action was Mohammad Abu Hasna, whom it describes as a Hamas militant who “participated in taking control of humanitarian aid and distributing it to terrorists” of the Islamist militia.
Hamas, on the other hand, has responded in a statement that Abu Hasna was a member of its police force and has condemned his murder as a “cowardly murder” aimed at disrupting aid distribution. UNRWA has condemned the bombing. “Today’s attack on one of the few remaining UNRWA distribution centers in the Gaza Strip comes as food supplies are running low, hunger is widespread and, in some areas, turning into famine.” , declared the head of the organization, Philippe Lazzarini.
Lazzarini reported today that the number of children killed in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israeli attacks is higher than the number of minors killed in all wars in the last four years. Gazan authorities, controlled by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), have reported the deaths of some 13,000 children since the start of Israeli operations in October. The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, assured this Tuesday that Israel will continue with its military campaign in Rafah, where 1.3 million people are gathered. “We will finish the job,” he promised. The White House has warned that it has not yet seen a credible plan to protect civilians in Rafah, and that it will not support an operation that does not include it.
Meanwhile, international pressure continues for a truce and the release of the hostages. The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, has stressed to the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, the need for a “lasting” ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, as well as the release of the hostages taken by Hamas in the attacks of October 7. “We deplore the current situation, but we have to do more than deplore it. We both agree on this. I think we have to act. Today the very survival of the population of Gaza is at stake,” he declared.
