RAFAH: After extending an evacuation order for Rafah, Israeli forces resumed airstrikes on Gaza on Sunday. The UN warned that an assault of the densely populated southern city may result in a “epic” calamity.
Two medics lost their lives on Sunday in the central town of Deir al-Balah as a result of intense gunfire from Israeli helicopters, according to the civil defense organization in Gaza.
Witnesses reported seeing smoke rising over the city after Israel launched attacks in Rafah on Saturday, close to the Egyptian border.
Disregarding global protests, Israeli forces advanced into the eastern parts of the city, thereby closing a vital humanitarian crossing and halting transit via another.
The head of the EU says it’s unacceptable that Rafah inhabitants are being told to relocate to dangerous areas.
After 300,000 residents left the city earlier this week, Israel extended its order for Palestinians to evacuate to the eastern part of Rafah.
Farid Abu Eida, who had already been displaced from Gaza City and was getting ready to depart Rafah, said, “We don’t know where to go.”
Locals packed mattresses, water tanks, and other possessions into cars in preparation for another evacuation.
“There isn’t a single area in Gaza left that is secure or not packed… We have nowhere to go. The “humanitarian zone” of Al-Mawasi, near the coast northwest of Rafah, was instructed to the residents.
The actions of Israel in Rafah caused growing international indignation.
Social media posts by EU leader Charles Michel claimed that Rafah people were being told to relocate to “unsafe zones,” calling this “unacceptable.”
According to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Israel’s activities in the city are “making it impossible to provide lifesaving medical assistance,” and as a result, the organization has begun transporting 22 patients from a field hospital in Rafah.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, Israel’s offensive has killed at least 34,971 individuals in Gaza so far, the majority of them being women and children.
Hopes for a truce dwindle
The armed wing of Hamas announced on Saturday that a prisoner featured in a video it had published had passed away from injuries sustained in an Israeli strike, even as efforts to mediate a truce and the release of captives seemed to be at a standstill.
Nadav Popplewell, a British-Israeli man, was killed, according to the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, “because he did not receive intensive medical care because the enemy has destroyed the Gaza Strip’s hospitals.” Popplewell was injured in an attack one month prior.
If Hamas releases the captives, US President Joe Biden stated on Saturday that a truce would be reached “tomorrow.”
All-out assault on Rafah intended to spark chaos: US
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated on Sunday that “anarchy” would result from an all-out Israeli attack on Rafah, even though he acknowledged that Israeli forces had killed more civilians than Hamas fighters.
Secretary Blinken stated on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “Israel’s on the trajectory, potentially, to inherit an insurgency with many armed Hamas left or, if it leaves, a vacuum filled by chaos, filled by anarchy, and probably refilled by Hamas.”
Blinken said, “Yes, we do,” in response to a question on CBS about whether the US agreed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that Israeli forces had killed more civilians than Hamas combatants.
Donors offer Gaza $2 billion
More than $2 billion in aid was promised to the Gaza Strip on Sunday during an international donor meeting held in Kuwait, more than seven months into the Israeli-Hamas conflict.
The money will be distributed over a two-year period to support life-saving humanitarian actions in Palestinian territory, according to the conference, which was organized by the International Islamic Charitable Organization and the UN’s humanitarian coordination agency OCHA.
