The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees within the Near East (UNRWA) on Friday strongly condemned Israel’s plan to forcibly relocate Palestinians in Gaza towards the southern metropolis of Rafah, warning that such a transfer would create “massive concentration camps” and worsen the already dire humanitarian disaster.
Juliette Touma, UNRWA’s director of communications, instructed Al-Jazeera English the company “categorically refuses any forced displacement of any population.”
“If it happens, it will push tens of thousands more people, many of whom have already been displaced multiple times during this war and over generations, further south and into the unknown,” Touma mentioned.
She emphasised that the rapid precedence needs to be reaching a cease-fire and enabling UNRWA to ship urgently wanted help.
“We have over 6,000 trucks in Egypt and Jordan filled with medicine that is about to expire, food that is spoiling and hygiene supplies,” she mentioned.
“All we are saying is lift the siege, get a cease-fire, allow UNRWA and other U.N. organizations to do our work,” she added.
Earlier, the U.N. raised alarm over continued mass displacement within the Gaza Strip and warned that greater than 700,000 individuals have been uprooted for the reason that finish of the cease-fire in March.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz mentioned he instructed the military to organize a plan to relocate all Palestinians to what he known as a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of Rafah in southern Gaza.
Rejecting worldwide requires a cease-fire, the Israeli military has pursued a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, killing almost 57,800 Palestinians, most of them ladies and youngsters.
The relentless bombardment has devastated the enclave and led to meals shortages and the unfold of illness.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on expenses of battle crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity in Gaza.
Israel additionally faces a genocide case on the International Court of Justice over its battle on the enclave.
Source: www.dailysabah.com