NGOs warn Rafah operation will be disastrous for Gazans

People flee the eastern parts of Rafah, after the Israeli military began evacuating Palestinian civilians ahead of a threatened assault on the southern Gazan city. — Reuters

Aid groups warned on Monday that Israel’s demand that Palestinians leave part of the southern Gaza city of Rafah could be “catastrophic” in the absence of a clear evacuation plan.

The evacuation order affected 100,000 people in eastern Rafah, according to the army, out of 1.2 million who are sheltering across Rafah.

Many of them have been displaced from other parts of Gaza due to the Hamas-Israel war.

Israeli officials, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have vowed for months that troops would launch a ground offensive in Rafah where, they say, four Hamas battalions are entrenched, and have promised a safe evacuation of civilians without providing specific plans.

Residents of eastern Rafah were told to evacuate early Monday and head to the coastal area of Al Mawasi, an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone adjacent to Rafah ahead of a “limited operation” by the army.

The area declared safe by Israeli forces was expanded ahead of the evacuation order, but aid groups say Al Mawasi is not ready to receive an influx of people.

“The area is already overstretched and devoid of vital services,” said Jan Egeland, director of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

“It lacks the capacity to house the number of people currently seeking refuge in Rafah,” he added in a statement.

In a statement, the Islamic Relief said that people already sheltering in Al Mawasi face huge challenges.

“Civilians sheltering there say they continue to face attacks and severe shortages of food, water and other vital aid,” it said.

Jean-Raphael Poitou, Middle East programme director for Action Against Hunger, also warned of precarious conditions in Al Mawasi.

“People are going to have to go to places that are under rubble, or in areas that are essentially a beach”, he said, adding that “unexploded devices” may litter parts of Al-Mawasi.

Although civilians in the eastern part of Rafah were told to evacuate, no real plan for their move is in place, several charity groups said.

“From the humanitarian perspective, no credible humanitarian plan for an attack on Rafah exists,” said Bushra Khalidi, advocacy director for Oxfam in the Palestinian territories.

Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children International added in a statement: “We hoped this day would never come”.

“For weeks we have been warning there is no feasible evacuation plan to lawfully displace and protect civilians.”

The Islamic Relief decried the impossibility of moving so many people from one overcrowded area to another.

“As we have seen over the past seven months, forcing so many people to move is impossible without serious humanitarian cost and people will inevitably die as a result of the evacuation,” it said.

Nonprofits also fear that any mass evacuation will disrupt current humanitarian activities, already made difficult by shortages and near constant air strikes.

“An offensive on Rafah would also mean yet again that medical staff and patients would be put in danger and forced to leave medical facilities,” medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said in a statement.

It pointed out that its own staff has already “been forced to leave nine healthcare facilities in the Strip since the beginning of the war”.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, has expressed similar concern online.

“Any disruption could lead to unprecedented levels of need, including famine-like conditions, numerous deaths, and the crippling of our life-saving operations”, the UNRWA chief said.

The NGOs also fear that a wider operation targeting the whole of the Rafah governorate would spell disaster for the Palestinians sheltering there.

“The offensive on Rafah will be catastrophic for the estimated more than one million people currently crammed in Gaza’s southernmost governorate,” MSF said in its statement.

The UN agency for children UNICEF warned of the consequences for around 600,000 children now living in Rafah.

“If large-scale military operations are launched, children will not only be threatened by violence, but also by chaos and panic at a time when their physical and mental state is already weakened.”