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The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said 360,000 Palestinians had fled Rafah over the past week, out of 1.3 million who were sheltering there before the operation began. Most had already fled fighting elsewhere during the seven-month war between Israel and Hamas.
Israel has portrayed Rafah as the last stronghold of the militant group, brushing off warnings from the United States and other allies that any major operation there would be catastrophic for civilians. Hamas has meanwhile regrouped and is battling Israeli forces in parts of Gaza that Israel bombarded and invaded earlier in the war.
UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said on Monday that another 100,000 Palestinians had been displaced in northern Gaza following recent Israeli evacuation orders there. That would mean about a fifth of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people have been displaced over the past week.
Thirty-eight trucks of flour arrived through the western Erez Crossing, a second access point to northern Gaza, said Abeer Etefa, a spokeswoman for the UN’s World Food Programme. Israel announced the crossing’s opening on Sunday.
The Rafah crossing into Egypt has been closed since Israeli troops seized it a week ago. Fighting in Rafah city has made it impossible for aid groups to access the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, though Israel says it is allowing supply trucks to enter from its side.
For the past week, the Israeli military has intensified bombardment and other operations in Rafah while ordering the population to evacuate from parts of the city. Israel insists it is a limited operation focused on rooting out tunnels and other militant infrastructure along the border with Egypt.
Israeli forces were also battling Palestinian militants in Zeitoun and the urban Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, areas where the army had launched major operations earlier in the war.
Israel insists it is a limited operation focused on rooting out tunnels and other militant infrastructure along the border with Egypt. Photo / AP
Etefa said WFP was distributing food from its remaining stocks in the areas of Khan Younis in the south and Deir al-Balah furrther north, where many of those escaping Rafah have fled.
Inside Rafah, only two organisations partnering with WFP were still able to distribute food, and no bakeries were operating.
“The majority of distributions have stopped due to the evacuation orders, displacement and running out of food,” she said.
Israeli protesters halted a convoy of aid bound for Gaza at a checkpoint between the occupied West Bank and Israel. Videos circulating online showed them hurling some of the aid off trucks and destroying it. Police said several arrests were made.
Almost the entire population of Gaza relies on humanitarian aid to survive. Israeli restrictions and ongoing fighting have hindered humanitarian efforts, causing widespread hunger and a “full-blown famine” in the north, according to the UN.
The director of the Kuwait Hospital, one of the last functioning medical centres in Rafah, said medical staff and residents living near the facility had been told to evacuate. Sohaib al-Hams warned any evacuation of the hospital itself would have “catastrophic consequences”.
The international charity Oxfam, meanwhile, warned of disease outbreaks in Gaza following an estimated US$210 million ($349m) of damage to water and sanitation infrastructure, mass displacement and the onset of summer.
Israel, which has lost more than 600 soldiers so far, marked a sombre Memorial Day for fallen soldiers on Monday. Photo / AP
“Oxfam staff in Gaza have described piles of human waste and rivers of sewage in the streets, which people are having to jump between. They also reported people having to drink dirty water and children being bitten by insects swarming around the sewage,” it said in a statement.
The war began when Hamas and other militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 250 hostage. Militants still hold about 100 captives and the remains of more than 30 after most of the rest were released during a ceasefire last year.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures. Israel says it has killed over 13,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Israel marked an especially sombre Memorial Day on Monday, with ceremonies commemorating fallen soldiers, including the more than 600 killed since October 7, more than half of them in the initial attack. Sirens announced two minutes of silence at 11am.
At a ceremony at Mount Herzl cemetery on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed once again to defeat Hamas.
“We exacted and will exact a high price from the enemy for their criminal acts. We will realise the goals of victory and at the centre of them the return of all our hostages,” he said.
Protesters and hecklers interrupted some of the ceremonies, reflecting growing discontent with Israel’s leaders that has brought thousands of protesters into the streets in recent months. Critics blame Netanyahu for the security and intelligence failures that allowed the attack to happen and for the failure to reach a deal with Hamas to release the hostages.
Months of internationally mediated talks over a ceasefire and hostage release ground to an apparent standstill last week after Israel launched its incursion into Rafah. Israel has refused Hamas’ central demands for an end to the war and the withdrawal of its forces from the territory, saying that doing so would allow the militant group to regain control and launch more October 7-style attacks.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned on Sunday that Israel could face an “enduring insurgency” if it doesn’t come up with a realistic plan for post-war governance in Gaza. Israel has rejected US proposals for the Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza with help from Arab states because those plans depend on progress towards the establishment of a Palestinian state, which Netanyahu opposes.
