Eurasia Press & News
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed deep concern on Tuesday over the escalation of Israeli military activities in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
“I am disturbed by the Israeli military activity in Rafah,” Guterres said at a press conference.
Emphasizing the immense importance of reopening the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings, which are crucial for humanitarian aid to Gaza, Guterres called for these border crossings to be reopened immediately.
“Rafah is the epicenter of humanitarian action in Gaza,” he said, warning that any attack on Rafah would worsen the already dire humanitarian situation, potentially leading to hunger and suffering for people in that area.
He reiterated the catastrophic consequences of such an attack.
“An attack on Rafah would be a strategic mistake, a political catastrophe, and a humanitarian nightmare,” Guterres stated.
He appealed to “all those who have influence on Israel to do everything in their power to help prevent an even greater tragedy.”
The Israeli army announced early on Tuesday that its forces had taken control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing.
Following the announcement by the Palestinian group Hamas about accepting the Qatari-Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, the Israeli war cabinet decided to continue the operation in Rafah in order to, as they stated, “apply military pressure on Hamas to advance in the release of hostages and other war objectives.”
The Israeli army issued an urgent order to evacuate Palestinians in the eastern neighborhoods of Rafah and urged them to move to the city of al-Mawasi in southern Gaza.
Rafah is home to more than 1.5 million displaced Palestinians who fled the war initiated by Israel after Hamas’ attack on October 7, in which nearly 1,200 people were killed.
Since then, more than 34,700 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israeli attacks, causing a humanitarian catastrophe, according to Anadolu Agency.
