Aid deliveries still suspended in Rafah as disease spikes
In its daily report, the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says cases of diarrhoea, respiratory infections and jaundice syndrome surged in the wake of Israel’s attacks on Rafah in the south of Gaza.
Since May 6, 800,000 people have been displaced from the city, according to the agency, with another 100,000 displaced from the north of Gaza. Meanwhile, a suspension of aid deliveries in Rafah announced on Tuesday continues.
In northern Gaza, Kamal Adwan Hospital remains non-functional and al-Awda Hospital is under siege, it said.
All patients and staff reportedly evacuate from Kamal Adwan Hospital: WHO
WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus has said the hospital in the northern town of Beit Lahiya is “no longer functioning”.
The update comes after Israeli forces launched artillery attacks on the facility and a missile struck the hospital’s emergency department.
“Access to health care across Gaza is further shrinking. Many hospitals lack fuel and medicines due to the continued closure of the Rafah crossing,” Tedros wrote on X.
Update from Kamal Adwan hospital in northern #Gaza: reportedly all patients and health staff have been evacuated and the hospital is no longer functioning. Some patients went home, while the majority were referred to Al-Ahli Hospital. Al-Ahli referred stable patients to Al Helou…
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) May 22, 2024
Israeli forces move deeper into the heart of Rafah
Israeli forces are advancing and now sit on the edge of a crowded district in the heart of the city of Rafah, residents in the city in southern Gaza say.
The Reuters news agency reports that Israeli tanks have taken up new positions further west along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, and now sit on the edge of Yibna neighbourhood at the centre of Rafah, but are yet to enter the district.
Palestinian residents say Israeli forces fired into Yibna overnight and also fired on fishing boats, causing some to catch fire. The advance comes after one of the most intense nights of bombardment yet by the Israeli military on Rafah.
“There has been no stopping of Israeli fire all night, from drones, helicopters, warplanes, and tanks,” one Rafah resident, asking for his name to be withheld, told Reuters.
The Israeli military says it is attacking the city, which was one of the last refuges for more than a million Palestinian civilians in Gaza, to root out the last battalions of Hamas fighters it says are sheltering there. The assault has been widely condemned by the international community and humanitarian groups.
A Palestinian man and his children sit in a destroyed room following the targeting of a residential building by an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, southern Gaza, on May 22
