The humanitarian situation remains catastrophic on Tuesday in the Gaza Strip where nearly a million and a half Palestinians are crowding into the town of Rafah threatened with assault by Israel, at a time when a new impasse is looming at the Security Council of the UN regarding a possible ceasefire.
According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), nearly a million and a half people are in Rafah, whose population has increased sixfold since the start of the war on October 7, between Israel and Hamas.
This town located on the closed border with Egypt is targeted daily by strikes by the Israeli army, which said it was preparing a ground assault there.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Rafah Hamas’ “last stronghold” and said he was determined to continue the offensive “until complete victory.”
During the night from Monday to Tuesday, Israeli bombings focused on the east of the Gaza Strip and the town of Khan Younes, according to an AFP journalist on site.
After approximately twenty weeks of war, reports from humanitarian organizations on the situation in the Gaza Strip are increasingly alarming.
Nine out of ten children sick
According to UN agencies, food and drinking water have become “extremely scarce” in the Palestinian territory and 90% of young children there suffer from infectious diseases.
“The Gaza Strip is on the verge of seeing an explosion in the number of preventable child deaths, which could worsen the already unsustainable level of child deaths in Gaza,” said Ted Chaiban, deputy head of the Gaza Strip. humanitarian action within UNICEF.
PHOTO MOHAMMED ABED, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Rafah, February 19, 2024
“My children are dying of hunger, they wake up crying,” said a woman taking refuge in a camp in northern Gaza. “Where can I find food for them?” »
“Missiles are falling on us, how much longer can a human being cope with them? » asks Ayman Abou Shammali, injured during a strike against a building in Zawayda, in the center of the Gaza Strip. “People in the north are dying of hunger and we are dying here because of the bombings,” he sums up.
The war was sparked by an unprecedented attack launched on October 7 by Hamas commandos infiltrated into southern Israel. More than 1,160 people were killed, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data, and dozens of others kidnapped and taken by force to Gaza.
In retaliation, Israel vowed to annihilate the Islamist movement, in power in Gaza since 2007, which it considers a terrorist organization along with the United States and the European Union.
The Israeli army launched an offensive that left 29,092 people dead in Gaza, the vast majority of them civilians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
According to Israel, 130 hostages are still being held in Gaza, 30 of whom are believed to have died, out of around 250 people kidnapped on October 7.
“If by Ramadan, our hostages are not at home, the fighting will continue everywhere, including in the Rafah region,” warned Benny Gantz, member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet, on Sunday.
“Hamas has a choice. They can surrender, free the hostages and the civilians of Gaza will be able to celebrate the festival of Ramadan,” the Muslim month of fasting which begins around March 10, he added.
Blockage in sight at the UN
The prospect of an assault on Rafah worries the international community. Twenty-six of the 27 countries of the European Union called on Monday for an “immediate humanitarian pause”. But hopes of a truce are increasingly slim.
PHOTO SAID KHATIB, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Khan Younes, view from Rafah, February 19, 2024
The UN Security Council must decide on Tuesday on a new text, prepared for weeks by Algeria, demanding an “immediate” ceasefire. A resolution threatened by a new veto from the United States, Israel’s ally, which would be their third since the start of the war.
The project, seen by AFP, “requires an immediate humanitarian ceasefire which must be respected by all parties”. He opposes the “forced displacement of the Palestinian civilian population”, while Israel has mentioned an evacuation of civilians before a ground offensive in Rafah, and calls for the release of all the hostages.
The United States warned that the Algerian text was not acceptable. “We do not believe that this product of the Council would improve the situation on the ground, and therefore if this resolution is put to a vote, it will not pass,” Deputy United States Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood reiterated Monday .
American alternative project
The Americans believe that this resolution would endanger the delicate diplomatic negotiations on the ground to obtain a truce including a new release of hostages.
In this context, they circulated an alternative draft resolution, seen by AFP on Monday. The text mentions a “temporary ceasefire in Gaza as soon as it is feasible” and on the basis of a “formula” including the release of all hostages.
The American project is also concerned about Rafah, warning that “a large-scale land offensive should not take place under current conditions”.
According to a diplomatic source, this alternative project has no chance of being adopted as it stands, in particular because of the risk of a Russian veto.
The Security Council, largely divided on the Israeli-Palestinian issue for years, has only been able to adopt two resolutions on this issue since October 7, essentially humanitarian. Without much result, the entry of aid into Gaza remains largely insufficient.