As the two main crossings near the southern Gaza City remained blocked on Monday, aid workers battled to provide hundreds of thousands of Palestinians evacuated by what Israel claims is a limited military operation in Rafah with diminishing food and other supplies.
Out of the 1.3 million Palestinians who were taking sanctuary in Rafah before the start of the operation, 360,000 have left, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. The majority had already left to fight in other places during Israel and Hamas’ seven-month conflict.
Israel has dismissed warnings from the US and other partners that any significant action there would be disastrous for civilians and instead has painted Rafah as the jihadist group’s last bastion. In the meantime, Israel has invaded and bombed areas of Gaza that Hamas has taken over, and the group is currently fighting Israel in these areas.
More than 100,000 Palestinians have been forced from their homes in northern Gaza as a result of recent Israeli evacuation orders, according to U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq on Monday. That would indicate that during the previous week, almost 5% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents had been forced to flee their homes.
According to Abeer Etefa, a representative for the United Nations World Food Program, thirty-eight trucks carrying flour arrived via the western Erez Crossing, which serves as a second entry point to northern Gaza. On Sunday, Israel declared the bridge open.
However, throughout the past week, food has not been let into Gaza through the two main crossings in the south.
Since Israeli forces took control of the Rafah crossing into Egypt one week ago, it has been closed. Aid organizations are unable to reach the neighbouring Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel due to fighting in Rafah city, however, Israel claims it is still allowing supply trucks to enter from its side.
The Israeli military has been stepping up its bombardment and other operations in Rafah for the past week, ordering residents to leave certain areas of the city. Israel maintains that the operation is restricted to eliminating extremist infrastructure, including tunnels, near the border with Egypt.
In Zeitoun and the urban Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, where the army had conducted significant operations earlier in the conflict, Israeli forces were also engaged in combat with Palestinian terrorists.
According to Etefa, the WFP is providing food from its remaining supplies in the southern region of Khan Younis and the northern region of Deir al-Balah, where a large number of people who are fleeing Rafah have fled.
There were now just two WFP-affiliated organizations in Rafah that could still distribute food, and there were no bakeries open.
“Most of the distributions have ceased because of the orders for evacuation, displacement, and food scarcity,” she stated.
A humanitarian convoy headed for Gaza was stopped by Israeli demonstrators at a gate separating Israel and the occupied West Bank. Videos of them smashing and tossing aid from trucks have been making the rounds on the internet. Authorities made several arrests, but they did not provide further details.
For survival, almost all of Gaza’s population is dependent on humanitarian aid. According to the U.N., continued conflict and Israeli restrictions have impeded humanitarian assistance, leading to widespread hunger and a “full-blown famine” in the north.
One of the few operational hospitals left in Rafah, Kuwait Hospital’s director announced that people living close to the hospital as well as the medical staff had been ordered to leave. Any evacuation of the hospital itself would have “catastrophic consequences,” according to Sohaib al-Hams.
While this was going on, the international organization Oxfam issued a warning about disease epidemics in Gaza due to anticipated damages to water and sanitation facilities totalling $210 million, mass displacement, and the arrival of summer.
“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.
On October 7, Hamas and other terrorists invaded southern Israel, killing almost 1,200 people—mostly civilians—and kidnapping another 250. This marked the start of the war. Approximately one hundred and thirty of the remaining hostages—the majority of whom were freed during a cease-fire last year—remain in the hands of militants.
More than 35,000 Palestinians have died as a result of Israel’s offensive, the majority of them were women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians in its statistics. Israel claims to have killed more than 13,000 militants, but it has not shown any proof.
On Monday, Israel observed an exceptionally solemn Memorial Day, honouring the soldiers who have lost their lives, over 600 of whom have died since October 7—more than half of them during the initial assault. At 11 a.m., sirens called for two minutes of silence.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, reaffirmed his commitment to defeating Hamas during a ceremony held at the Mount Herzl cemetery outside of Jerusalem.
“We exacted and will exact a high price from the enemy for their criminal acts. We will realize the goals of victory and at the centre of them the return of all our hostages,” he said.
Some of the ceremonies were disrupted by hecklers and protestors, a reflection of the mounting dissatisfaction with Israel’s authorities that has led thousands of demonstrators into the streets in recent months. Netanyahu is criticized for failing to strike a compromise with Hamas to free the hostages and for security and intelligence lapses that made the attack possible.
Following Israel’s entry into Rafah, months of internationally mediated negotiations for a cease-fire and hostage release appeared to come to a stalemate last week. Israel has rejected Hamas’ main requests, which include ending the conflict and removing its forces from the region, claiming that doing so would give the terrorist organization back control and enable it to carry out future attacks akin to those on October 7.
The government of US President Joe Biden, which has been instrumental in providing military and diplomatic support for the offensive as a whole, has become increasingly irritated with Israel and has stated that it will not give offensive weapons for a full-scale Rafah attack.
Speaking on Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken cautioned Israel that it may be faced with a “enduring insurgency” if it is unable to devise a workable post-war governance strategy for Gaza. The United States has proposed that the Palestinian Authority rule Gaza with assistance from Arab states; however, Israel has rejected these plans since they are contingent on the construction of a Palestinian state, which Netanyahu rejects.
Magdy reported from Cairo, and Krauss from Jerusalem. Contributing writers for the Associated Press were Lee Keath in Cairo, Jack Jeffery in Jerusalem, and Edith Lederer at the UN.
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