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SvennoJ on 15 May 2024
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Blinken says Rafah offensive has had ‘negative impact’

The US secretary of state says the Rafah operation has had a “negative impact” on humanitarian conditions in Gaza, adding that it is urgent for the Rafah crossing – shuttered since it was seized by Israel last week – to regain operational capacity.

Addressing a news conference in Kyiv, Blinken also warned the enclave could fall into a chaotic power vacuum if no clear, long-term plan is put in place.

Netanyahu says there is no humanitarian crisis in Rafah

The Israeli prime minister has denied reports of mass hunger, disease and deprivation in Gaza’s southern city, saying that a humanitarian crisis “hasn’t materialised, nor will it materialise”.

Last week, after the Israeli army seized and shut down the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt – a vital entry point for humanitarian aid – the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, warned that southern Gaza’s hospitals had only days of fuel left to run their operations, and that the entry of fuel into the Strip was essential to prevent more death.

Yesterday, Israeli attacks on Rafah led Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, to pull out of the Indonesian Hospital and refer the 22 remaining patients there to other medical facilities.

As the Israeli army moves into the city to conduct its long-threatened ground offensive, there are currently more than one million Palestinians sheltering in Rafah, many in tents in the streets, prompting warnings of the spread of disease and an acute shortage of food from multiple UN agencies.

‘Scale of crisis defies imagination’, says IRC

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) says it is facing “significant disruptions to its humanitarian operations” following Israel’s ground operations in Rafah, southern Gaza, which resulted in the closure of the Rafah crossing and a blockade on entry of humanitarian workers and aid.

“An IRC and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) emergency medical team (EMT) was initially scheduled to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing on May 13. They remain unable to do so due to the persistent closure of the crossing,” the IRC said in a statement.

Kiryn Lanning, IRC team lead for the occupied Palestinian territory, said: “I have recently returned from Gaza, where the scale of the crisis defies imagination. Facilities across southern Gaza have been repurposed into makeshift shelters overflowing into the streets. This displaced population is now facing acute shortages of basic necessities such as food, water, and adequate sanitation.”

Palestinians in need of medical evacuation plead for Rafah crossing to reopen

With Rafah’s border crossing shuttered, Palestinians with life-altering wounds are unable to be evacuated abroad for treatment, leaving them to suffer in the enclave with limited medicine and healthcare.

Ni’ma Ali Imad’s five-year-old son, who lost his sight and suffered a head wound due to Israeli shelling, is one such case.

“The doctors here did what they could, but we still need the official sides [authorities] to cooperate with us and open the border crossing, because this is a child, and we would want him to live like other children in the world,” Ni’ma Ali, speaking at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah, told the Reuters news agency.

“We hope that you will be able to open the Rafah border crossing for the humanitarian cases, so that they can receive treatment, and be provided with medication, so the boy can once again see with his eyes.”