GENEVA
The secretary general of the humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) has voiced fear of “further catastrophe” in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, and warned of the risk of more civilian casualties, a clear reference to Israel’s ongoing onslaught that began on Monday.
Christopher Lockyear told Anadolu that Rafah is one of the “very few arteries into the Gaza Strip that can provide essential humanitarian assistance to the people who are desperately in need.”
“What is happening over the last few days is what we’ve been fearing for months now, and the potential consequences are really that there is a further catastrophe on (top of) the catastrophe that has been happening in Gaza over the last six months or so,” he stressed as Israeli army on Tuesday seized control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt, a vital route for humanitarian aid into the besieged territory.
Lockyear noted that bombs are causing direct casualties, but there are also “silent killings that are ongoing on a daily basis for those people who can’t receive medical treatment.”
The secretary-general called for an “immediate and sustained cease-fire,” adding that “if you are enabling this to happen through the supply of weapons, through political support, you too are morally and politically complicit in terms of what is happening in Rafah today.”
On Monday, the Israeli army issued evacuation orders for Palestinians in eastern Rafah, a move widely seen as a prelude to Israel’s long-feared attack on the city, home to some 1.5 million displaced Palestinians.
He referred to the situation in Rafah as “obscene,” saying asking the people to relocate is unacceptable. “This is not a humane action. This is an obscene act to make people move it again.”
“We have seen tens of thousands of civilian casualties in this conflict… And so I think it is inevitable if this conflict continues, we’ll see more, more and more casualties,” Lockyear warned.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas which killed about 1,200 people.
More than 34,900 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, mostly women and children, and 78,100 others injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Over seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January said it is “plausible” that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and ordered Tel Aviv to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
