'Not possible': Palestinians too 'starved' to leave Rafah
Orders to move out of the city are meaningless to people 'unable to walk' due to starvation, aid workers say
A girl mourns Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on 8 May (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)
Three days ago, the Israeli military dropped flyers ordering displaced people and residents of Rafah to leave.
In the orders where people were told to move out of Rafah, the military said it was “about to operate with force against the terror organisations in the area”.
A UN estimate
says there are 1.2 million people sheltering in dire conditions in
Rafah, Gaza's southern city. The "full-blown famine" that has taken hold
in the north of Gaza has spread to the south, Cindy McCain, the head of
the World Food Programme, confirmed over the weekend.
There are roughly 200 Palestinians that are being forcibly displaced
from Rafah every hour, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine
Refugees (Unrwa) said on Wednesday.
During an online press briefing, medical doctors and humanitarian aid
workers reporting from the ground in Gaza spoke about the impossible
feat of moving people from Rafah, as people are ridden by famine plus a
collapsed transportation and healthcare system.
"There are children and elderly that are so starved that they can
barely walk. These people cannot just relocate to another area, to
so-called 'safe zones'. It is not possible," Alexandra Saieh, head of
humanitarian policy from Save the Children, said.
Several aid workers have expressed that there is no "safe" area in
the Gaza Strip for people to relocate to. "The concept of safe zones is a
lie," Helena Marchal, from Medecins du Monde, said.
Restricted movement
Aid workers also reiterated the difficulty of getting aid both into Gaza and then distributing it. Both
the Rafah and the Kerem Shalom crossings, through which most aid
reached the besieged Strip, have closed since Sunday evening.
Roads across Gaza are largely destroyed or blocked by people
sheltering, contributing to the difficulty of movement of both goods and
people. Only a very limited number of routes, especially between the
north and south, are available for humanitarian use, Jeremy Konyndyk,
from Refugees International, explained.
'There are children and elderly that are so starved that they can
barely walk. These people cannot just relocate to another area'
- Alexandra Saieh, Save the Children
Another issue is overcrowding.
"In Deir al-Balah and the Mawasi area on the outskirts of the Rafah
and Khan Younis governorates, there is barely any space. There are tents
everywhere, on the beach, on the sidewalks, the streets, the
graveyards, the courtyards of the hospitals, in the courtyards of the
schools," Ghada Alhaddad, from Oxfam International, said.
Saieh explained that it took her team six weeks and four failed
attempts to move a couple of hundred food parcels from Rafah to the
north of Gaza.
"One litre of fuel cost $40 yesterday," according to Ranchal.
Fuel enters through the Rafah crossing.
"The whole aid operation runs on fuel. If the fuel is cut off, the aid operation collapses," Konyndyk said.
Severe malnutrition
Professor John Maynard, a surgeon from the UK who has spent the last
two weeks operating on Palestinians in Gaza, highlighted complications
from a direct result of malnutrition.
"I had two patients, 16 and 18, both of whom had survivable injuries,
[and] both of whom died last week as a direct result of malnutrition."
'I had two patients, 16 and 18, both of whom had survivable injuries,
[and] both of whom died last week as a direct result of malnutrition'
- Nick Maynard, surgeon
His colleague Dr Kahler, spoke of a "tipping point" after six-eight months, "the immunological system breaks down".
"It is at that time when infections and complications from malnutrition will start," he added.
A famine, one aid worker explained, requires three thresholds: a
sustained, severe lack of access to food, high levels of child
malnutrition, and highly elevated mortality as a result of famine and
disease.
All thresholds have been passed in the north, Konyndyk stated.
"If there is a Rafah invasion, this will certainly push things past
the tipping point, and we will see a skyrocketing mortality related to
the famine."