UNICEF warns an Israeli offensive in Rafah would mark ‘devastating turn’

UNICEF has warned that a ground Israeli military offensive escalation in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza would mark a “devastating turn” in the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Strip, as Israel moves toward an expected ground invasion in the overcrowded province.

“An escalation of the fighting in Rafah, which is already straining under the extraordinary number of people who have been displaced from other parts of Gaza, will mark another devastating turn in a war that has reportedly killed over 27,000 people – most of them women and children,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a press statement. Accprding to WAFA News Agency.

UNICEF said 600,000 children are among the more than one million people in the densely populated city in the southern Gaza Strip. Many fled to Rafah as an earlier Israeli ground offensive erupted in northern areas of Gaza. If the region’s remaining hospitals, shelters, markets and water systems are destroyed, hunger and disease “will skyrocket,” the UN organization warned.

“I appeal to all parties… to adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law. That includes taking the utmost care to spare civilians and civilian infrastructure, to meet civilians’ essential needs and facilitate rapid, safe, and unimpeded humanitarian access,” Russell said, reupping UNICEF’s call for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire.”

“A humanitarian ceasefire will save lives. It will allow for the expansion of the humanitarian response, and help provide the best protection for children whose lives and futures are hanging in the balance,” according to the statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today he ordered the military to evacuate the population of Rafah ahead of an expected invasion of the province.