UPDATE 2 - UN humanitarian office voices 'fear' of possible expansion of Israeli offensive to Rafah

ADDS FURTHER REMARKS

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

GENEVA (AA) - The UN humanitarian office on Friday voiced fear of possible expansion of the ongoing Israeli military offensive to the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

"We fear that this could get worse for these people,” Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told a briefing in Geneva, while responding to Anadolu’s question.

Rafah is currently hosting over half of the Gaza population that has been displaced by the war. It is also the main route of humanitarian assistance for the 2.2 million in dire need.

"History gives us that cause for concern," Laerke said, adding: "And without a doubt, (we have) a deep fear for all those Palestinians internally displaced."

He stressed that the "spirit of the law, which talks about protection of civilians in all conduct of hostilities, that has certainly not been a feature of this crisis."

The spokesman said he did not know if this feature "suddenly" would happen in Rafah in the coming days or weeks.

Underlining that there is already an unimaginably high concentration of people in the southern city, Laerke said: "Rafah is a pressure cooker of despair."

"I want to emphasize our deep concern about the escalation of hostilities in Khan Younis, which has resulted in an increase in the number of internally displaced people seeking refuge in Rafah in recent days," he said.

He stressed that it's been "shocking to hear" about the heavy fighting in the vicinity of the hospitals in Khan Younis, jeopardizing the safety of medical staff, the wounded and the sick, as well as thousands of internally displaced people seeking refuge there. According to him, there's "no safe place" in Gaza and Rafah.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on X on Thursday that Israeli forces in Gaza will "continue to Rafah."

"The Khan Yunis Brigade of the Hamas organization is disbanded, we will complete the mission there and continue to Rafah," he said.

Israel has killed more than 27,000 people in the Gaza Strip in response to the Oct. 7 cross-border offensive by Hamas, which took the lives of 1,200 people and took 240 as hostages. The military onslaught has caused mass displacement and destruction and created conditions for famine.