Rafah evacuations not ‘possible’ under current conditions: Red Cross
Humanitarian workers have no knowledge of plans to evacuate Palestinians from Gaza’s southernmost city ahead of an expected Israeli assault, but such a transfer would not be possible under current conditions, a Red Cross official has told AFP.
“When we see the level of destruction in the middle area [of Gaza] and in the north, it’s not clear to us where people will be moved to, … where they can have decent shelter and essential services,” said Fabrizio Carboni, Middle East regional director for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
“So today, with the information we have and from where we stand, we don’t see this [massive evacuation] as possible,” he said on the sidelines of an aid conference in the United Arab Emirates.
More than 1.5 million people of Gaza’s population of 2.4 million had sheltered in Rafah, the last major population centre in Gaza that Israeli ground troops have yet to enter.
“We don’t see for the time being any plans for civilian evacuations,” Carboni said during the interview at the Dubai International Humanitarian Aid and Development Conference. But “there is no condition for a military operation without devastating humanitarian consequences,” he added.
“Considering the level of destruction, considering that people are tired, some of them wounded and sick, and the limited access to food and essential services, I see [evacuations] as extremely challenging.”
Euro-Med warns of imminent Israeli ‘massacre’ in Beit Lahiya
The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor says the Israeli military will likely carry out a “new massacre” in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya, after the army issued new evacuation orders to people who have remained in the area.
Israeli forces will be “wipe out the last remnants” of Beit Lahiya, and will cause yet another wave of mass displacement in the area, where some 50,000 Palestinians reside, the monitor said in a statement.
Earlier, Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on X the military “will use extreme force against terrorist infrastructure and subversive elements in the region”, telling residents to “evacuate the area immediately and head towards known shelters in blocks number 1770, 1766”.
However, rights groups have repeatedly said that “nowhere is safe” in the besieged territory, pointing to Israeli attacks on places previously deemed “safe”. The shelters the Israeli army asked Palestinians to flee to, Euro-Med said, are destroyed areas that are “unfit for any form of life, and lack water supply as well as functioning sewage systems”.
Unions speak up for students disciplined for pro-Palestine protests
Unions representing tens of thousands of workers are demanding “the immediate reinstatement of all student and student workers disciplined for pro-Palestine protests and the end to the repression of protest on Columbia’s campus.”
Protests at Columbia and other university campuses across the nation began in response to the escalation of the Israeli war on Gaza. Last week, Columbia President Nemat Minouche Shafik called in New York police to clear a tent encampment protesters had set up on Columbia’s main lawn to demand the school divest from Israel-related investments.
The school said the encampment violated rules. Police arrested more than 100 students from Columbia on charges of trespassing. Columbia and the affiliated Barnard College have suspended dozens of students involved in the protests.
The union representatives said they “stand in solidarity” with those who were arrested and face suspension. “An injury to one is an injury to all,” they said in a statement.
