The UN agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) on Sunday said that Israeli army’s expansion of its operation in the city of Rafah “risks cutting the lifeline of assistance into Gaza, causing further suffering,”
The agency issued the statement on its X account. UNRWA added that “there is not enough food in Gaza.”
“In the Nuseirat (refugee) camp in the middle Gaza, UNRWA and World Central Kitchen provide hot meals to 1,700 people displaced in & around this shelter,” the agency noted.
Israel has announced its intention to invade Rafah in the densely populated southern area of Gaza after forcibly evacuating residents of the north of the enclave and directing them to the south, claiming it to be a “safe area.”
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since an October 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas, which was a retaliation to decades-long occupational crimes committed by Israel in Palestine. The ensuing Israeli attacks have killed nearly 29,000 and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
