Panic is soaring in Rafah as desperate Palestinians decide whether to flee the last refuge in Gaza as Israel draws up plans for a ground offensive that the United Nations aid chief has warned could lead to “a slaughter.”
A growing number of countries and international organizations are now scrambling to convince Israel to halt its planned offensive, with Ireland’s Taoiseach (or prime minister) Leo Varadkar accusing the country of becoming “blinded by rage.”
The South African government made an “urgent request” to the International Court of Justice Tuesday to determine if Israel’s extended military actions in the southern Gazan city require it to “use its power to prevent further imminent breach of the rights of Palestinians in Gaza.”
Israel has been bombarding Rafah with airstrikes for weeks and says it is committed to a ground offensive as the alternative “is to surrender to Hamas and to sacrifice 134 people,” Israeli military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner told CNN Tuesday, referring to the Israelis held hostage in Gaza. “That is not an option from Israel’s perspective,” he said.
It remains unclear how or when a ground offensive would unfold, and that uncertainty is adding to anxiety among Palestinians in Rafah about where to go and what to do.
“We’re lost. We don’t know where to go… We’re tired. We’ve been walking around without knowing where to go,” Mo’men Shbair, a displaced Palestinian in Rafah, told Reuters, adding that he prays the world pressures Israel to end the war and “release us.”
United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths warned Tuesday that such an offensive could lead to “a slaughter” and leave humanitarian efforts in Gaza “at death’s door.”
He urged Israel to listen to the international community’s warnings against “the dangerous consequences” of a ground invasion, saying “history will not be kind” if those calls are ignored.
