Assault on Rafah in Gaza could bring a slaughter, UN official says

An Israeli assault on the Gaza border town of Rafah would bring the “slaughter” of hundreds of thousands of civilians and be a huge blow to aid operations in the entire enclave, a UN official has said.

Israel has repeatedly warned of an operation against Hamas in the southern city, where around a million displaced people are crowded together, having fled months of Israeli bombardments triggered by Hamas fighters' deadly cross-border attack on 7 October.

“It could be a slaughter of civilians and an incredible blow to the humanitarian operation in the entire strip, because it is run primarily out of Rafah,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office (OCHA), at a Geneva press briefing.

Israel has said it will work to ensure the safe evacuation of civilians from Rafah.

Aid operations in the city include medical clinics, warehouses stocked with humanitarian supplies, food distribution points, and 50 centres for acutely malnourished children, Mr Laerke said. OCHA would do everything possible to ensure aid operations continued, even in the event of an incursion, and the UN was studying how to do that, he added.

A World Health Organisation (WHO) official said at the same briefing that a contingency plan for Rafah had been prepared, which included a new field hospital, but said it would not be enough to prevent a substantial rise in the death toll.

More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in nearly seven months of conflict, according to health officials in Hamas-run Gaza.

“I want to really say that this contingency plan is a bandage,” said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, via video link. “It will absolutely not prevent the expected substantial additional mortality and morbidity caused by a military operation.”

Other preparations include pre-positioning medical supplies at hospitals further north in case Rafah’s three hospitals become non-functional, as has happened multiple times in the seven-month conflict due to Israeli raids and bombings.

WHO data shows that just a third of the strip’s 36 pre-war hospitals are partially operational. Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes and says its operations against them have been justified by the presence of fighters. Hamas and medical staff deny the allegations.

Mr Peeperkorn added he was “extremely concerned” that any incursion would close the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt which is currently being used to import medical supplies.

“We are pushing and lobbying that, whatever happens, it remains open,” he added, saying WHO had raised this issue with Israeli authorities.

Meanwhile, Turkey has said it will not resume trade with Israel – worth $7bn (£5.6bn) a year – until a permanent ceasefire and humanitarian aid are secured in Gaza, becoming the first of Israel’s key commercial partners to take such a step.

Israel’s “uncompromising attitude” and the worsening situation in the Rafah region prompted Ankara to halt all exports and imports, trade minister Omer Bolat said.

Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz criticised Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan’s move, enacted late on Thursday, saying it breaks international trade agreements and was “how a dictator behaves”.

The new ban covers all remaining trade, amounting to $5.4bn in Turkish exports – or nearly 6 per cent of all of Israel’s imports – and $1.6bn in imports to Turkey last year.

The top Turkish exports to Israel are steel, vehicles, plastics, electrical devices and machinery, while imports were dominated by fuels at $634m last year, Turkish trade data shows.

Reuters