Palestinians face increasingly crowded, limited space in Rafah: OCHA

By Merve Aydogan

HAMILTON, Canada (AA) - The humanitarian crisis in Rafah has reached a critical point, with the space for civilians to congregate and seek refuge becoming increasingly limited and crowded, said the head of UN aid agency OCHA's office in the occupied Palestinian Territory on Monday.

Sharing his insights from a recent visit to Gaza, Andrea De Domenico highlighted the alarming situation in Rafah and the devastating impact of Israeli airstrikes on civilians.

"The events that have unfolded in Rafah since the seventh of May, with the subsequent move up to almost a million people that found refuge for months in Rafah and now that they've moved all in a sudden... The result of it is that the narrowing space that is left for civilians to conglomerate and leave is becoming more and more limited, and more and more crowded," De Domenico said during a virtual press briefing at the UN.

The people of Gaza are "very welcoming people, they're super they're formidable guests," De Domenico said, adding that the current dire situation on the ground is destroying "more and more this fabric progressively."

He continued by saying that all hospitals in Rafah are "no more functional" and that there are only field hospitals.

With "more or less 950,000 people" left Rafah, he said "the operational environment remains extremely challenging" in the area.

Turning to remarks by Israeli officials suggesting the war on Gaza will continue until the end of the year, De Domenico said: "The perspective of having a war until the end of the year is simply terrifying in my mind.

"I was reflecting a little bit on all this dynamic of the criticism moved to the United Nations' inability to deliver humanitarian. I've lived it on my skin in the last three weeks how complicated it is to operate," he said. "I think there is no other place in the world where the system has been put to such level of challenges and stretch".

More than 36,400 Palestinians have since Israel began its war on Gaza eight months ago. The vast majority of the dead have been women and children, and over 82,600 others have been injured, according to local health authorities. The Hamas-led cross-border attack that precipitated the current war led to about 1,200 deaths.

Vast swathes of Gaza now lay in ruins amid a crippling Israeli blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in its latest ruling has ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.​​​​​​​