An Israeli floor offensive in Rafah would flip the southern Gaza metropolis right into a “graveyard” and improve the looming danger of famine, leaders of worldwide humanitarian teams warned on Tuesday.
“The implications of a large-scale assault on Rafah are really unimaginable,” Avril Benoit, government director of Docs With out Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) in america, instructed reporters.
“Taking a navy offensive there would flip it right into a graveyard,” Benoit mentioned at a information convention hosted by Docs With out Borders, Refugees Worldwide, Oxfam, Amnesty Worldwide and different teams.
Benoit mentioned Rafah, the place 1.4 million Palestinians reside in crowded shelters and tent camps, is the “finish of the road.”
“It’s the final hub of healthcare providers and humanitarian assist for the folks of Gaza,” she mentioned. “Attacking Rafah successfully means reducing off the lifelines of people that have already misplaced the whole lot however their lives.”
Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees Worldwide, mentioned Israeli assaults have made it “nearly unattainable” for humanitarian teams to function safely in Gaza and there’s a rising danger of famine.
“Folks, particularly at this level within the north, are already getting ready to famine,” Konyndyk mentioned.
“The chance right here is famine until a significant humanitarian operation can function unhindered and at scale throughout Gaza,” he mentioned.
“And that famine is not going to happen due to any pure phenomenon, however merely due to the way in which this warfare is being waged and the continued and deliberate denial of humanitarian entry, primarily by the Israeli authorities.”
Konyndyk additionally mentioned it was a mirage to consider that the inhabitants of Rafah could be safely evacuated as a result of they’ve nowhere else to go safely.
Benoit of Docs With out Borders urged america and different international locations to name for a ceasefire.
“A ceasefire is the one strategy to stop extra demise and struggling in Gaza,” she mentioned. “Our groups on the bottom proceed to witness sufferers unable to entry the medical care they want because of repeated and protracted assaults on healthcare services and their environments.
“One in every of our docs in Rafah not too long ago instructed us that she writes the names of her youngsters on their legs and arms in order that they are often simply recognized if they’re killed in a bombing,” she mentioned.
Israel launched an assault on Gaza after a Hamas assault on October 7 that killed about 1,160 folks, largely civilians, in southern Israel, in keeping with an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory marketing campaign has killed greater than 29,000 folks in Gaza, largely girls and youngsters, in keeping with the most recent rely from the Hamas-run Well being Ministry.
