Israel has issued evacuation orders for further neighborhoods in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, as it appears set to expand its operations there despite international concern.
The Israel Defense Forces’ Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, told people in further parts of eastern Rafah to evacuate north to the Mawasi area early Saturday, despite warnings from U.N. officials that Mawasi lacks the infrastructure to support more displaced people.
In a message posted on social media, Adraee also called on people in a number of areas in northern Gaza to move to the west of Gaza city, adding that the IDF would move against areas where he said Hamas is trying to rebuild its capabilities.
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Saturday that at least 300,000 people were affected by the new evacuation orders in Gaza.
“Everywhere you look now in west #Rafah this morning, families are packing up. Streets are significantly emptier,” Louise Wateridge, a communications officer for UNRWA, wrote on social media.
According to the agency’s estimates, 150,000 people have fled Rafah since Monday. The city’s population had swelled to over a million due to successive waves of displacement from other areas of Gaza since the war began.
Those who have already fled Rafah “are facing dire shortages of shelter, food, water and sanitation services,” the U.N. humanitarian affairs agency said in a Friday update. The agency added that several hospitals in Gaza “will only be able to sustain operations for less than 48 hours” unless fuel is immediately allowed to enter, adding that eight bakeries supported by the World Food Program have already been forced to stop operating.
Georgios Petropoulos, an official with the U.N. humanitarian affairs agency OCHA inside Gaza, said in a video dated Friday that WFP and UNRWA “will run out of food for distribution in the south by tomorrow. That means that people will be left only with the aid that has already been distributed.”
Israel has not yet launched a full-scale invasion of Rafah, but President Biden this week said he would cut off shipments of offensive weapons to Israel if the country goes ahead with its long-planned offensive.
The news from Rafah comes after a Biden administration report said it is “reasonable to assess” that Israel has violated humanitarian law using American weapons, but said there is insufficient information to draw a firm conclusion in any specific instances, meaning U.S. military aid can continue to flow to its ally.
The report drew sharp criticism from independent experts and aid groups who said it did not hold Israel sufficiently accountable.
The independent task force that previously provided the administration with a 76-page report on alleged international humanitarian law violations by Israel said Friday in a statement that while the Biden administration’s position “continues to inch toward reality,” its report was “at best incomplete, and at worst intentionally misleading in defense of acts and behaviors that likely violate international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said the report continues a “disturbing pattern” where expert analysis of the situation from the State Department and USAID has “been swept aside to facilitate a predetermined policy outcome based on political convenience.”Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy, said the organization welcomes “President Biden’s recent promise to withhold certain munitions out of concern for civilian harm” but said “today’s report functionally greenlights Israel’s continued use of US weapons in ways contrary to our law, interests and values.”
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The U.N. General Assembly voted to grant the observer state of Palestine new “rights and privileges,” including the ability to introduce or co-sponsor legislative proposals, but stopped short of granting the delegation the right to vote.The global body also called on the U.N. Security Council to reconsider the Palestinian bid to become a full U.N. member state — a resolution the United States vetoed in April.
Negotiations over a cease-fire and hostage release deal have stalled, as the latest round of talks in Cairo ended without a breakthrough. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that the lack of developments is “deeply regrettable, given the amount of energy that was applied to trying to get us there.” Hamas accused Israel of obstructing progress and said it would reconsider its approach to the talks.
At least 34,943 people have been killed and 78,572 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack,including more than 300 soldiers, and says 271 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operation in Gaza.