The United Nations aid chief warned Thursday of the possibility of Palestinians huddled in Rafah fleeing to Egypt if Israel launches a military operation against the border town.
More than a million Palestinians are crammed into Rafah, at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt. Many are living in camps and shelters after fleeing Israeli bombing elsewhere in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military says it wants to expel Islamist militants from their hideout in Rafah and free hostages held there after Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel, but has given no details of a proposed plan to evacuate civilians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing growing international pressure to postpone the planned attack, has given no indication of when the offensive might take place.
“The possibility of a military operation in Rafah, with the possibility of closing the (border) crossing, with the possibility of a spillover… a kind of Egyptian nightmare… is right before our eyes,” Martin Griffiths told reporters. Diplomats at the United Nations in Geneva.
In his opinion, the idea that Gaza's population could be moved to a safe place is an “illusion.”
“We should all hope that Israel’s friends and those who care about Israel’s security will give them good advice at this time,” Griffiths said.
The United Nations said an Israeli offensive on Rafah “could lead to a massacre.”
At the same meeting as Griffiths, Mirjana Spoljaric, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said the lack of a clear evacuation plan, including for the sick and elderly, was taking suffering to new levels.
“The suffering on both sides and the carnage we have witnessed since October 7 will reach unimaginable proportions if operations in Rafah are intensified as announced,” Spoljaric said.
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