Gaza [Palestine], January 10: War must not reach the south of the Gaza Strip, a UN relief agency warned during a visit from German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
"This conflict cannot come to Rafah on a large scale," said Gemma Connell, head of Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Gaza. The comments were made at the Rafah border crossing on Tuesday. Baerbock was briefed about the situation in the war zone there as part of her Middle East trip.
The demarcation line between Egypt and Gaza runs through the city of Rafah. Before the Gaza war, around 280,000 people lived in Rafah on the Palestinian side of the border. Now 1.5 million are seeking protection there from the fighting. Israel's army says it is now concentrating on destroying Hamas structures in the centre and south of the Gaza Strip.
There are already air strikes in Rafah every night, said Connell. The 1.5 million people have nowhere else to go and must be protected.
There was literally no safe place in Gaza, she explained, making this "a unique conflict" in the world. The situation is also unprecedented in view of the more than 130 UN employees killed so far and attacks against UN facilities.
Scott Anderson, deputy head of the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA in Gaza, spoke of an "incredibly difficult" operation.
The aid organization needs significantly more trucks with relief supplies to meet the needs in the Gaza Strip. Relief supplies are needed from around 300 trucks every day.
Source: Qatar Tribune