Israeli military offensive on Rafah ‘recipe for disaster’ UN says

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has declared that a military offensive on Rafah, southern Gaza Strip is a recipe for disaster.

Phillippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA commissioner-general, said on X that “In Rafah southern Gaza, there are 1.4 million people – in tens of kilometers- living in the streets in plastic makeshift shelters.”

He expressed frustration over the plan to carry out military operations in southern Gaza by the Israeli forces.

Recall that the official Israeli Broadcasting Authority said that the military operation in Rafah would commence after the completion of a “wide-ranging evacuation” of civilians from the city and its outskirts.

In reaction, the Gaza government media office warned of a “global catastrophe and massacre” in the event of Israel’s invasion of Rafah province.

Rafah currently houses over 1.4 million Palestinians, including 1.3 million displaced from other governorates, serving as the last refugee camp, according to the government media office in Gaza.

So far, the death toll in Israeli attacks on the besieged enclave has gone beyond 28,000, as 117 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours, the territory’s Health Ministry said on Saturday.