Gaza: As exodus from Rafah continues, UN calls for aid lines to reopen

“As Israeli bombardment intensifies in Rafah, forced displacement continues,” the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said. UNRWAin a post on X. “About 110,000 people have now fled Rafah for safety. However, nowhere is safe in the Gaza Strip and living conditions are terrible. The only hope is an immediate ceasefire.”

In addition to the direct threat of ongoing military action, United Nations aid agencies have increasingly warned with increasing urgency since Israeli tanks entered the Rafah border crossing on Monday that Humanitarian operations across the land have been paralyzed.

“It is unlikely that, once again, things will get worse if humanitarian operations are not revived in the next 48 hours,” the UN Children’s Fund said.UNICEF) Senior Emergency Coordinator in the Gaza Strip, Hamish Young.

The UN is attacked

In a related development, UN Secretary General António Guterres strongly condemns the new attack by protesters on UNRWA facilities in Jerusalem.

“I condemn the recent attack on @UNRWA Headquarters in East Jerusalem. Targeting aid workers and humanitarian assets is unacceptable and must stop,” the statement said. The UN chief said in a post on X.

His comments were emphatic by UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini on Thursday, who reported that Israelis had “twice set fires around” the agency’s headquarters, marking the second time UNRWA has been targeted in a week amid weeks of protests.

Uprooted again

Back in Gaza, the latest images of Rafah provided by UNRWA show a steady stream of people leaving the east of the city with cars, motorbikes and donkey carts loaded with their belongings in response to evacuation orders from the military. Israeli team.

Most of the displaced are seeking safety in Khan Younis and Deir Al-Balah. However, these areas lack the basic services needed to support civilians in need of food, shelter and health care, aid groups maintain.

UNICEF’s Mr. Young said roads leading to the coastal area of ​​Al Mawasi, where Gazans were instructed to move, were “congested.” Speaking from Rafah via video link to journalists in Geneva, he described desperate scenes as families were once again forced to flee their homes, with “hundreds of trucks, buses, cars and donkey carts loaded with people and property” continued to pour out of the southern city. .

“The people I spoke with told me they were exhausted, scared and knew that life in Al Mawasi would once again be more difficult,he say. “Families lack adequate sanitation, drinking water and shelter. People are making improvised toilets by digging holes in the ground around groups of tents. Open defecation is increasing.”

“One of the fathers told me he had nothing but bad options to choose from. And when he told me where he was going, he started sobbing. Then his children started crying and started asking me what to do. It is truly a tragic situation and there is no safe place in Gaza for children.”

Griffith’s Call

“Civilians in Gaza are being starved and killed…This is Gaza today,” said top UN aid official Martin Griffiths.

In a social media post on X, he warned late Thursday that for days, “Nothing and no one is allowed in or out of Gaza.”

The closure of the Rafah and Kerem Shalom border crossings in southern Gaza – the main entry point for critically needed food, water, fuel and medical aid – “means there is no aid,” Mr. Griffiths continued. aid”.

“Our supplies are stuck. Our teams are trapped,” he said, a message echoed by relief teams whose assessment missions were canceled because of fuel shortages.

Meanwhile, civilians have faced and continuously had to flee intense bombardment and clashes every day.and we are prevented from helping them.”the head of emergency relief emphasized.

Aid stores are too dangerous to access

At the same time, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) reported that their main warehouse in Gaza was now out of reach.

“Our main warehouse is currently inaccessible. No aid has arrived from southern border crossings for two days,” interim WFP Palestine Country Director Matthew Hollingworth said on X late Thursday.

“Thousands of people are moving. Only one bakery is still in operation. Food and fuel supplies in Gaza will last only one to three days. Without them, our operations would come to a standstill.”

Important hospital services

The United Nations World Health Organization warns that the outlook is equally dire for the region’s remaining health facilities (WHO), including the saying “without fuel, the whole system will collapse”.

WHO is responsible for supplying fuel to all the hospitals in Gaza, but they must Pause missions in the north so those in the south can stay opensaid spokesperson Dr. Margaret Harris.

“All the work that hospitals do, all the life-saving treatments are no longer possible, even if you save someone from the brink, you operate on them, you put them on a ventilator, the ventilator stops working, they’re no longer breathing.”

The following medical facilities are expected to run out of fuel within the next 24 hours, the United Nations aid coordination office said. OCHAsaid, citing Gazan authorities:

• Five sets of medical hospitals

• 28 ambulances (14 from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and 14 from the Ministry of Health)

• 17 primary health care centers run by UNRWA and other partners

• Five field hospitals

• 10 mobile clinics providing vaccination, trauma and malnutrition care and 23 health facilities in Al Mawasi

From UNICEF, Executive Director Catherine Russell also warned that services for premature babies risk losing power unless fuel supplies reach Gaza.

“We need fuel to transport life-saving supplies – medicine, malnutrition treatments, tents and water pipes – as well as staff to reach children and families in need.”

Without new aid supplies, children and families will face dehydration or be forced to drink dangerous water, while wastewater treatment centers “will be overwhelmed and spread more epidemics”.

According to UNICEF, about 80 babies were born at Emirati hospital every day. However, Mr. Young asserted that it “cannot operate” without fuel. Pregnant women “have no options for safe childbirth. As we have seen in other areas of Gaza over the past seven months, when hospitals run out of fuel, life-saving equipment such as ventilators and incubators stop working.”

Fees increase

According to Gaza health authorities, at least 34,900 people have been killed and more than 78,500 injured in Israeli bombardments and ground operations in Gaza since October 7.

About 1,250 people were killed in the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on southern Israel that sparked the war, with more than 250 people held hostage. Dozens of people are still detained.

Gaza border crossings are ‘lifeline of aid’: Human rights chief

in one statement later on Friday Head of the United Nations Human Rights Office (UNHCR) Volker Türk said he did not endorse any hostile action that would affect “access and distribution of critically needed humanitarian aid” to Gaza.

“Several land routes into Gaza serve as lifelines for the supply of food, medicine, fuel and other necessities. must be allowed to reach a desperate and frightened population”, Mr. Turk said.

He called on all warring parties to “immediately lay down their arms” to ensure that the transport of civilians, goods and necessary aid reaches the people of Gaza without delay and without risk through through military operations.

The Security Council called for an immediate and independent investigation into the mass graves

Also on Friday, members of Security Council expressed “deep concern” at reports of the discovery of mass graves, in and around the Nasser and Al Shifa medical facilities in Gaza, where hundreds of bodies, including those of women, were found , children and the elderly.

Emphasizing the need for accountability for violations of international law, Council members called for “investigators to be allowed to investigate.” unhindered access to all sites of mass graves in Gaza to conduct immediate, independent, thorough, comprehensive, transparent and impartial investigations to determine the circumstances behind the graves.”

They also reiterated their request that all parties “Strictly comply” with its obligations under international lawespecially the protection of civilians and civilian objects.

Members also reaffirmed the importance of allowing families to know the fate and whereabouts of their missing loved ones.

Experts raised concerns about threats to ICC staff and their families

Independent United Nations human rights experts on Friday expressed concern about several statements by the United States and Israel threatening retaliation. International Criminal Court (ICC), its officials and family members.

“At a time when the world needs to unite to end the terrible bloodshed in Gaza and seek justice for those illegally killed, wounded, traumatized or held hostage, including from October 7, It is distressing to see State officials threatening retaliation against the Court for pursuing international justice”, experts said.

The Office of the Public Prosecutor (OTP) has condemned statements made on Friday, May 4, regarding threats of retaliation against the court. It reminds everyone that according to Article 70 of the Rome Statute, any threat of reprisal may be considered a crime against the administration of justice.

“Threats of retaliation violate human rights norms against attacks on judicial personnel and exceed accepted limits of freedom of expression. We call on all States to respect the independence of the Court as a judicial institution and to protect the independence and impartiality of those who work in the Court.”