2024-02-15 22:32:22
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) demanded safe evacuations in the city of Rafah accompanied by greater humanitarian assistancein the face of an increase in Israeli offensives in that area where three quarters of Gazans were cornered after four months of war. A Palestinian doctor and the coordinator of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Gaza They also reported on the terrible situation that is being experienced in Rafah during the last few hours.
The voices against Israel’s imminent land military incursion continue to grow. This Wednesday the French president, Emmanuel Macronurged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “stop” military operations in the Stripwhile Spain and Ireland asked the European Commission to “urgently” investigate whether Israel is respecting human rights in the Palestinian enclave.
The Red Crosswho warned of a possible humanitarian disaster in Rafah, stressed that Any evacuation “must guarantee that civilians reach safe areas, with acceptable hygiene, food and health conditions.”and without families being separated.” He also called for evacuees to be able to return to their homes at the end of hostilities, and warned that international humanitarian law prohibits actions such as forced disappearances, the use of civilians as human shields, or ” “attacks that cause disproportionate levels of destruction and death.”
The international organization specialized in conflict assistance recalled that Currently, 1.5 million of the around two million Palestinians who live in besieged Gaza take refuge in Rafah., in an area of just 60 square kilometers that represents less than a fifth of the total territory of the strip. “Even in a context of massacres and extreme polarization, the fundamental principles of humanity must be maintained,” claimed the Geneva-based organization, recalling that many of the refugees in Rafah had to change their address two, three or even four times since the start of the conflict on October 7.
“There is no room to walk”
A Palestinian doctor from MSF, whose name was not revealed, told his testimony of the latest bombings by the Israeli Army against Rafah. “I know that this message means nothing to many people and that it will not change anything, but what I do know is that, If we haven’t died now, we will in the next airstrike or the one after that.. And to be honest, he who dies can consider himself lucky. He who survives is condemned to suffer again and again, as if he were the victim of a curse,” he declared.
The doctor recounted how, last Monday, a midnight bombing hit a building near their home, which caused them to lose “many things” but they were fortunate that their children and the rest of their family had survived. “A lot of things were falling on my back, hitting me. Helmets, wood… many other things that I don’t even know what they were. All in a matter of seconds. At that moment I felt nothing but pain. My mind wasn’t even there, I was like gone,” he added.
The MSF coordinator in the Gaza Strip, Lisa Macheiner, assured that the explosions against Rafah were heard and felt from the city of Khan Yunis, also in the south of the enclave, separated by a distance of about ten kilometers. “Our windows and doors shook all night. There was a lot, a lot of noise,” explained Macheiner, who stressed that people do not feel safe, that children are “terrified” and “distressed,” and the crowds of people make many times “there is not even space to walk.”
Guterres, alarmed
A large-scale operation like the one Israel appears to be preparing in Rafah would “catastrophic” and would cause “an unimaginable humanitarian disaster”assured the OMS. “You can see the fear on people’s faces,” said the organization’s representative in the Palestinian territories, Rik Peeperkorn, from Rafah itself, in a telematic press conference.
Peeperkorn recalled that before the conflict, Rafah was a quiet town, with about 30,000 inhabitants, which now hosts more than 1.5 million displaced people from areas further north in the strip devastated by the Israeli attacks. “They are crowded everywhere, in a very small space where they have built many temporary shelters,” the expert stressed.
The Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, maintained that he does not believe that there is a realistic scenario for an evacuation of the Palestinian population sheltered in Rafah. “The situation is terrible. Everywhere there is destructionThere are unexploded munitions everywhere,” he said in an interview with the German weekly Die Zeit.
“I am extremely concerned that there may be an offensive in Rafah and I am not the only one,” said the UN secretary general, adding that his concern is shared by governments in Washington, Berlin and London, as well as many other “friends and allies of Israel”. Guterres reiterated that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is historically unprecedented.
“So many victims, so much destruction in such a short time is something that has never happened before.. Never before has it happened that 156 of our own employees of a humanitarian organization were killed,” he emphasized. Regarding the Israeli allegations against the Palestinian refugee aid agency, UNRWA, Guterres highlighted the creation of a task force to clarify them. and said he had “zero tolerance” for an infiltration of the organization by the Islamist group Hamas.
Claims from France, Spain and Ireland
In a telephone conversation, the French president Emmanuel Macron “expressed France’s firm opposition to an Israeli offensive in Rafah” and considered it “very urgent” that “an agreement on the ceasefire be reached without further delay.” The French head of state considers it “imperative to open the port of Ashdod, a direct land route from Jordan and all border crossings” to deliver aid to the Palestinian territory, the French presidency said.
Meanwhile Spain and Ireland demand that the EU investigate whether Israel respects human rights in Gaza. Both countries made the request “given the unsustainable situation in Gaza and the risk of an even greater humanitarian catastrophe due to the expansion of the Israeli military operation on Rafah,” according to a statement from the Spanish government presidency.
Specifically, Spain and Ireland asked the commission by letter for “an urgent evaluation of the EU/Israel Association Agreement to investigate whether the essential points of the relationship in terms of human rights and democratic principles are being met.” Like Ireland, Spain has been one of the most critical European voices towards the Israeli government of Prime Minister Netanyahu since the beginning of the conflict.