Middle East

Relief agencies say closing Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings into Gaza has virtually cut enclave off from outside aid

Israeli seizure of Rafah crossing has come despite weeks of calls from the US, other governments and international bodies for Israel to hold off from big offensive in Rafah area

Displaced Palestinians fleeing Rafah to safer areas in the southern Gaza Strip on May 7th, 2024, following an evacuation order by the Israeli army. Photograph: AFP via Getty Images

Michael Jansen
Tue May 7 2024 - 16:33

The Israeli army’s seizure on Tuesday of the Palestinian terminal at the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza has alarmed relief agencies providing vital aid to the strip’s 2.2 million Palestinians.

UN and other international aid agencies said the closing of the two crossings into southern Gaza – Rafah and Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom – has virtually cut the enclave off from outside aid and very few stores were available inside.

The seizure of the Rafah crossing came despite weeks of calls from the United States, other governments and international bodies for Israel to hold off from a big offensive in the Rafah area – said by Israel to be the last stronghold of Hamas fighters but also the refuge of more than one million displaced Palestinian civilians.

Many of the people in Rafah were struggling to find a safe place to go in the tiny strip of land which has been bombarded almost non-stop since Hamas fighters stormed over the border into Israel on October 7th, killing about 1,200 people and abducting about 250 others, according to Israeli tallies.

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Director of planning for the UN Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa), Sam Rose, told Al-Jazeera on Tuesday: “The closure of the crossing is having catastrophic impacts on everyone in Gaza. Since October [Rafah] has been the main entry point for goods coming into Gaza.”

He said fuel enters Gaza only through Rafah and the Israeli Kerem Shalom goods channel. Without fuel there could be no aid distribution. Desalination plants and electricity supplies were also affected. He said on Tuesday there was enough fuel supplies for “half a day” of aid operations, adding: “Rafah-Kerem Shalom are the lifeblood of Gaza”.

World Health Organisation spokeswoman Margaret Harris said: “Given the already precarious living conditions and broken health system, any [military] operation in Rafah will exponentially increase the humanitarian catastrophe, and push an already fragile aid operation to a breaking point.”

She told Turkey’s Anadolu news agency that Israel’s demand for 100,000 Palestinians to evacuate eastern Rafah would exacerbate overcrowding [at Israeli designated sites], “limiting access to food, water, health and sanitation services, leading to disease outbreaks, worsening levels of hunger and additional loss of lives”.

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres appealed to Israel and Hamas to spare no effort to get a truce deal and warned Israel that a full assault on Rafah would “be a strategic mistake, a political calamity, and a humanitarian nightmare”.

The UN children’s agency Unicef said an Israeli “besiegement and ground incursion in Rafah would pose catastrophic risks to the 600,000 children” among the 1.4 million people sheltering in Rafah. The UN has said 34,488 Palestinians died during the conflict up to April 29th, including 14,500 children and 9,500 women.

“Rafah is now a city of children who have nowhere safe to go in Gaza,” said Unicef director Catherine Russell. She said extensive military operations would not only put “children at risk from violence, but also from chaos and panic, and at a time where their physical and mental states are already weakened”.

Norwegian Refugee Council head Jan Egeland accused Israel’s allies of not only failing to curb Israel’s attacks but also of “failing to prevent Israel from moving forward with a reckless military offensive in densely populated Rafah”. He said they must “bear responsibility for their failure to ensure respect for the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law”.

– Additional reporting: Reuters

Michael Jansen

Michael Jansen

Michael Jansen contributes news from and analysis of the Middle East to The Irish Times

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