Humanitarian crisis in southern Gaza city of Rafah worsening, say Palestinians

Palestinian leaders have warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis in the southern Gaza city of Rafah as Israel maintained its three-month-old offensive in the coastal enclave.

“For the 91st consecutive day, the Israeli government continues its deepening campaign of genocide, comprehensive destruction and displacement in the Gaza Strip,” the Palestinian Authority foreign ministry said in a statement.

It said Gaza’s population of more than two million were left with two options: “either face death through bombardment, starvation, thirst, denial of medical treatments, especially in winter, or endure further displacement”.

Israel’s continual bombardment of the Gaza Strip has left more than a million people crammed into Rafah, which is reported to now have the highest population density in the world.

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“The humanitarian crisis in Rafah is testing the remaining credibility of the international community,” the PA foreign ministry said in its statement.

More than 22,600 people have been killed in Gaza according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry. Israel says 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas-led attack on October 7th, in which 240 were kidnapped and taken to Gaza.

[ ‘It’s a daily struggle’: Half of residents in Gaza at risk of starving, UN warns ]

For the first time since the start of the war, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant has presented Israel’s plan for the “day after” – postwar arrangements to be set down in Gaza.

The plan, presented to the security cabinet on Thursday night, calls for Israel to maintain full freedom of military action in the Gaza Strip, without a civilian Israeli presence after the war’s objectives have been achieved, and for a multinational taskforce of western European countries and moderate Arab states to assume responsibility for rebuilding the strip.

It is proposed that a Palestinian entity based on the existing administrative mechanism in the Gaza Strip will take control of day-to-day affairs. Mr Gallant proposed that the more than one million residents of the northern Gaza Strip who have fled south should be allowed to return home only after
arrangements for the return of hostages are complete.

More than 100 hostages were freed by Hamas during a break in fighting in November, but Israel believes 136 of them are still being held. It has revised the number up from 133 after three civilians who had been declared missing were classified as hostages.

[ The Irish Times view on the Gaza conflict: Israel’s war takes on a new dynamic ]

Mr Gallant’s plan was criticised by the far-right members of the Israel’s security cabinet, including finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said a new approach was called for.

“The solution for Gaza requires thinking outside the box and a change of conception, by encouraging voluntary emigration and full security control – which includes rebuilding Jewish settlements,” he said.

The “day after” plan will be discussed with US secretary of state Antony Blinken when he visits Israel in the coming days. The head of Hamas’s politburo, Ismail Haniyeh, called on Mr Blinken to “focus his visit on ending the onslaught on the Palestinian people, on the path to ending the occupation”.

[ Attacks in Lebanon and Iran heighten fears of wider war in the Middle East ]

Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu broke up the security cabinet meeting after four right-wing ministers lambasted the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, Lieut Gen Herzi Halevi, for his decision to form a team to investigate the army’s conduct on October 7th and in the preceding period. War cabinet member Benny Gantz criticised Mr Netanyahu for allowing the attack, saying he should choose between “politics and security”.

As fighting between Israel the Lebanese militant group Hizbullah continued on Israel’s northern border, Mr Netanyahu told visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein that Israel has an obligation to bring about a fundamental change on its border with Lebanon in order to allow 80,000 evacuated residents to return home with a sense of safety. He emphasised that Israel was determined to achieve this goal through diplomacy or “by any other means”.

Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, in a speech on Friday, said that if Israel succeeded in Gaza, south Lebanon would be next. He said the group has carried out 670 attacks on the border since October 7th.

“The Lebanese have historically fled Israel, and today the ones who are fleeing are the Israelis,” he said. “Israel once established a security zone in the south of Lebanon – today, the security zone is in northern Israel.”