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An Israeli radio station reported on Monday that the Israeli occupation forces “began evacuating” Palestinian civilians from Rafah ahead of a possible attack on the city located in the southern Gaza Strip, coinciding with the 213th day of the occupation’s aggression on the Gaza Strip.

According to the radio station, the evacuation operations are now focused on a few areas surrounding Rafah, and the people being evacuated from there will be directed to the cities of Al-Khayam in Khan Yunis and Mawasi.

After seven months of Israeli aggression on Gaza, Israel says that Rafah is home to thousands of fighters from the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and that victory is impossible without control over the city.

However, with more than a million Palestinians taking refuge in Rafah, any major attack on it would lead to significant losses, raising concerns among Western powers and neighboring Egypt.

The occupation army called on Palestinian civilians to “temporarily” evacuate from the eastern neighborhoods of the Rafah area to what it called an “expanded humanitarian area” in Mawasi.

The army claimed that the humanitarian area includes “field hospitals, tents, large quantities of food, water, medicine, and other supplies,” explaining that it will allow, in cooperation with some international organizations and other countries, the expansion of the humanitarian aid being introduced into the sector.

It indicated that this operation “will proceed gradually based on the continuous assessment of the situation that will take place all the time.”

The occupation army emphasized that it will continue to work to achieve the goals of its aggression in the war; including “dismantling Hamas and returning all the hostages.”

“Warning of a Massacre”

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a press conference held in Geneva on Friday that any Israeli ground military operation in Rafah “could lead to a massacre” and would paralyze life-saving humanitarian work across the Gaza Strip.

OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke said that any ground operation “will mean more suffering and death” for the civilian population and displaced persons numbering 1.2 million Palestinians in the city located at the southernmost tip of the Strip and its surroundings.

He added that Rafah is “the heart of humanitarian operations” in Gaza, where dozens of relief organizations store supplies they provide to civilians across the Strip, including food, water, health, sanitation, and hygiene supplies.

In response to a question about the possibility of moving civilians from Gaza, the OCHA spokesperson insisted that the United Nations “will not participate in any non-voluntary evacuation of people,” saying, “This is not what we do.” He affirmed that the United Nations will do everything in its power to ensure the continuation of the humanitarian operation “under any circumstances.”

“Just a Bandage”

For its part, the World Health Organization said it is preparing emergency plans in case of an actual wide-scale military incursion, but they will not be sufficient to prevent the exacerbation of the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.

Speaking from Jerusalem via video, Dr. Rick Brennan, the WHO representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, said: “This emergency plan is just a bandage. It will not at all prevent the additional large numbers of deaths and the spread of diseases expected to result from the military operation.”

The WHO official warned that the ground military operation would lead to a new wave of displacement, more overcrowding, decreased access to basic food and water, sanitation “and certainly more disease outbreaks.”

He said, “The struggling health system will not be able to withstand the potential scale of destruction that the incursion will cause.” He noted that the deteriorating security situation could severely hinder the movement of supplies into and through Gaza, adding that the organization hopes and expects “that this military incursion will not happen and that we will move towards a permanent ceasefire.”

“What Will Happen to the Patients?”

After nearly seven months of intense Israeli bombing, only 12 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza and 22 out of 88 primary healthcare facilities in the Strip are “partially functioning,” according to the World Health Organization.

Dr. Ahmed Daher, head of the WHO team in Gaza, explained that this includes Al-Najar Hospital in Rafah, which provides dialysis treatment for hundreds of people.

He said, “The health system is barely able to continue… If any (ground) operation occurs - meaning that the population and patients will not be able to reach these hospitals - what will happen to these patients? Ultimately, it will be a disaster.”

Despite a “slight improvement” in the availability and variety of food in Gaza in recent weeks, Dr. Brennan rejected any suggestion that the risk of acute malnutrition has receded for the most vulnerable groups in the Strip.

He added that 30 children have died so far from diseases related to malnutrition, noting that he saw in Kamal Adwan Hospital children two years of age weighing “four kilograms, while they should weigh between ten and 14 kilograms.” He emphasized that hundreds of children suffering from similar conditions will endure the consequences of malnutrition for many years and it can last a lifetime.

Dr. Brennan said that the mechanism for avoiding endangering humanitarian workers has improved somewhat, but they still face significant problems, including delays in humanitarian convoys. He added, “What we can do in one mission, we have to do in four. This requires us to do very intensive work which is incredibly costly, and of course, it diverts us from other priorities.”

Reuters