There is a possibility of an Israeli military offensive in Rafah
What to Know About a Possible Israeli Military Offensive in Rafah: A Norwegian Refugee Council spokeswoman says it would be “catastrophic”
A military offensive in Rafah is what a spokeswoman for the Norwegian Refugee Council says would be “catastrophic”. She says offensive actions would cause an aid response to collapse.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the military’s plan for an attack on Rafah last month, but there’s still no publicly announced time frame for an assault.
A mass evacuation of Palestinians from Rafah could take weeks, and there’s no confirmation these tents are being set up for that purpose. The Israeli military declined to comment when asked by NPR about the new tents as seen on satellite imagery.
In negotiations with Hamas for a temporary cease-fire to release hostages, Israel has used threats of invasion, but the talks have stopped because Israel wants to take the Gazan city of Rafah.
Like many people in Rafah, he’s sheltering in a crowded apartment with other families. There are babies, elderly and ill people among them, he said. The idea of relocating to a tent is painful, he said, because his wife is still breastfeeding their youngest child and needs privacy. The prospect of an offensive is “one of the most terrifying things for us,” he said.
But with those talks at an impasse now for weeks, there’s growing worry in Rafah of an impending assault. There is a deep anxiety in the south about the upcoming military offensive, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the U.N. relief agency for Palestinians said this week.
According to a senior Egyptian official, there are tunnels and militant hideouts in five areas in Rafah. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive nature of the discussions. The official disputes Israeli claims of tunnels in that area.
The army should know that it needs to raise its hands in surrender when the Israelis enter the town. Rafah will not be the Rafah of today,” Israeli Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen told Israeli public broadcaster Kan on Tuesday, adding that the city would be free of arms and hostages.
Source: What to know about a possible Israeli military offensive in Rafah
What to Know About a Possible Israeli Military Offensive in Rafah: U.S. Special Envoy David Satterfield
The officials are worried about the possibility of a large death toll among Palestinian civilians when Israel targets areas with suspected tunnels.
David Satterfield is the U.S. special envoy for humanitarian issues in the Middle East.
There are other ways to deal with this. Satterfield told reporters Tuesday that they couldn’t support a ground operation if there wasn’t a credible humanitarian plan.
For its part, Egypt issued a statement this week denying “any dealings with Israel” regarding Rafah, and it reiterated its strong opposition to an offensive in Gaza along Egypt’s border, saying it “will lead to massacres, massive human losses, and widespread destruction.”
The war was based out of Rafah for much of it. The only way to leave for wounded Palestinians who can’t afford visas is through this point. Aid workers and Gaza’s humanitarian aid enters through this route.
Like most major aid groups, the Norwegian Refugee Council does not currently have set plans to evacuate, said Hadid. In the event that an offensive does begin, she said, “we would hope to stay and deliver to support the displaced population as much as possible and as safely as possible.”
The World Central Kitchen aid convoy was destroyed in an Israeli air strike that killed seven of the organization’s workers.
A majority of organizations working in Rafah have contingency plans for an evacuation. More credible information from Israel is what the director of the Association of International Development Agencies said was needed for the plans to be effective.
“To the best of their ability, they’re stockpiling aid. They’re looking at some locations. He said that there is some level of structural integrity to serve the people in parts of Deir al-Balah and north of Rafah.
COGAT, the Israeli agency responsible for Palestinian affairs, has said it will notify aid groups “in a reasonable amount of time,” Kelly said, but the agency has not specified how soon that warning will come.
Source: What to know about a possible Israeli military offensive in Rafah
The Israeli-Israeli Conflict in Gaza: a Model for the Outbreak of the Al-Shifa Hospital in Rafah
The Israeli military hailed the raid on the Al-Shifa hospital as a model because of the number of Palestinians who were killed. The hospital was destroyed, and hundreds of bodies of civilians are still being recovered in the city, which is a much different environment than the one in Rafah.
A man who lived in Gaza City and was now in an unused storefront with his family said people are dying in Rafah and they are being targeted in airstrikes.
“When they tell us to go to any place, we will go, but only if they provide us with a place to live and provide water and food — not just throw us in the desert and tell us ‘survive,'” he says.
Al- Sayyed said people’s patience had run out. People could try to return to their homes in Gaza City even though Israeli tanks have prevented them from doing so, as he says they could attempt to climb the border fence with Egypt.
Reporting was done by Becky Sullivan in Tel Aviv, Israel; Aya Batrawy in the United Arab Emirates, Anas Baba in the Gaza Strip and Jane Arraf in Amman, Jordan. In addition to that, additional reports were given from Itay and Michele in Tel Aviv, as well as fromAhmed Abuhamda in Cairo.
Nowhere in Gaza is hotter than Rafah, at the territory’s southern border along the edge of the Sinai desert. In summertime, daily high temperatures average in the mid-90s. Hot days regularly reach over 100 degrees.
Ayash’s tent, a hot summer in Gaza, provides a sweltering glimpse of a tough summer to come
After leaving his home to flee from the military campaign of Israel, Ayash and his family lived for months in a small tent.
But the tent Ayash erected — a modest triangle built against a cinder block wall, its outer walls made of blankets and cloth — was meant for the cold, rainy nights of a Gaza winter, he said. To keep him and his family dry, he had lined the tent walls with plastic, the sheets held in place by wooden boards nailed together.
In this week’s heat, he said, wiping the sweat from his brow, it was even hotter inside the tent than outside. “The kids are falling apart. They can’t stay inside the tents,” he said. “We want to remove nylon from it, God willing.”
By Friday, the two-day heat wave had broken, and temperatures had returned to the 70s. But for Palestinians and aid workers alike, the high heat served as a preview of a summer to come — during which the punishing heat will weigh daily on every facet of what has become normal life in the besieged Gaza Strip.
“With the hot summer and with high temperature, this is creating an atmosphere for all kinds of germs and pollution. And of course, this is the main driver for waterborne diseases and airborne disease,” warned Abdelrahman Al Tamimi, the director-general of the Palestinian Hydrology Group, a nonprofit that focuses on water and health issues in the Palestinian territories.
At least one Palestinian woman has died due to the heat, a worker with the global relief group Mercy Corps told NPR. Lara al-Sayigh, 18, had received word that she would be allowed to exit Gaza, said Mahmoud Khwaider, the aid worker and al-Sayigh’s neighbor. But she passed out from the heat and died before she could reach the border station at Rafah, Khwaider said.
Source: A 100-degree heat wave in Gaza offers a sweltering glimpse of a tough summer to come
The Gaza Strip has been displaced since Oct. 7 by Israel’s punishing campaign of airstrikes, air strikes, and ground operations
At a field hospital Thursday, a doctor ran clean water over the faces of two wailing young girls, their eyes burning from lice medication that had run from their scalps down into their eyes due to heat and sweat.
More than a million Palestinians have taken shelter here, the United Nations says, as Israel’s punishing military campaign forced people to flee from their homes further north.
“We didn’t expect things to reach a stage where we sit until May and June, and so on,” said Sharif Mazen Abu Odeh, who left his home in Beit Hanoun, a city in Gaza’s northeasternmost corner, shortly after Oct. 7, and didn’t anticipate being displaced this long.
The Israeli military’s campaign of airstrikes and ground operations, a response to the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7 that Israel says killed 1,200 people, has displaced most of Gaza’s population of 2.2 million. Over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, according to Gaza health officials.
Many left their homes with barely more than what they were wearing, let alone a full complement of winter and summer clothes. Most have been displaced multiple times, including Abu Odeh, who said he has moved four times since October.
“May God send down a little mercy from himself to cool the weather,” Abu Odeh said. “I don’t believe anyone other than the residents of the Gaza Strip — no one in the world — is living the life we are currently suffering from.”
Aid workers were able to wrap up their work by the time the heat peaked, since they were able to start early in the morning. But others worked through the heat, like those operating the Rafah and Kerem Shalom border crossings, where lifesaving aid enters Gaza daily.
Everybody is a little slower. Scott Anderson is the deputy director of operations in Gaza and said you have to drink more water since it’s in short supply. “It does impact everything to do with manual labor, because it’s so hot and there’s not anywhere, really, to seek shade.”
In order to have a safe day, UNRWA will consider opening the crossing earlier in the day in order to take a safety break during the afternoon.
Source: A 100-degree heat wave in Gaza offers a sweltering glimpse of a tough summer to come
Zakaria, a 5-year-old boy in the Mediterranean Sea, and his mom, in a water truck, relaxes in their tents
At a water truck, small children gathered underneath the spigots and danced as adults filled their jugs, while adults above them filled their jugs. Women in private shelters drained the water from their hijabs and put them on again. Along the rows of tents, people relaxed in what little shade they could find, hoping for a breeze.
And thousands flocked to the Mediterranean Sea to cool off — among them, a five-year-old boy named Zakaria, who told NPR that his swim in the ocean had made him happy.
Even worse would be the summer to come, he said. We don’t know what to do with our families. We do not know how to face this heat. “We are terrified.”
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has said that the possible Israeli military offensive in Gaza’s Rafah would be “catastrophic”. “There are over 2 lakh people who depend on Rafah for humanitarian aid and…they’ll be in great danger,” the NRC added. The US has said that it opposes the military offensive in Gaza and has urged Israel to exercise restraint.