UN relief chief warns fighting in Rafah will worsen humanitarian plight

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - UN relief chief Martin Griffiths has voiced concern over further fighting in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, saying it risks claiming more lives and exacerbating humanitarian needs.

"With the Gaza hostilities entering their fifth month, hope is dwindling for the millions of people affected and the humanitarians striving to assist them," Martin Griffiths, the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said in a statement on Wednesday.

Griffiths said that as the war continues further into Rafah, he is "extremely concerned" about the safety and well-being of families who have endured the unthinkable in the search for safety.

"Their living conditions are abysmal — they lack the basic necessities to survive, stalked by hunger, disease and death," he said, referring to the situation in which more than half of Gaza’s population of some 2 million people is now crammed into Rafah.

Griffiths said further fighting in the area also risks further hampering a humanitarian operation that is already limited by insecurity, damaged infrastructure, and access restrictions.

"To put it simply: This war must stop," he added.

Saying the war on Gaza will continue until Israel can claim “total victory” over Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week vowed a further push into Rafah.

At least 14 Palestinians were killed and several others injured overnight as Israeli warplanes targeted houses in the cities of Rafah and Deir al-Balah in the southern and central Gaza Strip, news agency Wafa reported late Wednesday.

Israel launched a deadly offensive on Gaza following an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas, killing at least 27,585 Palestinians and injuring 66,978 others, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.