Gaza- By occupying the Rafah land crossing with Egypt, Israel is tightening its heavy grip on the Gaza Strip, completely isolating it from the outside world, depriving the sick and wounded of traveling for treatment, and preventing the flow of humanitarian aid trucks. This would exacerbate the deteriorating humanitarian situation resulting from the war that has been ongoing for 7 months.
Today, Tuesday, Israeli tanks and military vehicles raided the Rafah land crossing, located southeast of the city of Rafah, adjacent to the border with Egypt, a few hours after Israeli warnings to residents of neighborhoods and areas east of the city to be displaced from their homes, signaling a ground military operation.
The occupation army broadcast video clips of tanks and military vehicles flying the Israeli flag and roaming the squares of the Rafah crossing, along the Philadelphia axis (the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip) in an unprecedented scene since the Israeli withdrawal from the crossing and the Gaza Strip settlements in 2005.
Local and international bodies saw the occupation of the Rafah crossing and the closure of the only commercial crossing of Kerem Shalom with Gaza as a deepening of the humanitarian and health disasters that the small coastal strip has suffered since the outbreak of the Israeli war following the attack on October 7 of last year.
While the Rafah crossing is considered the only gateway for Gazans to move and travel outside Gaza through Egyptian territory, the Kerem Shalom crossing is the only remaining commercial crossing after Israel closed 6 other crossings that linked it to the Gaza Strip, following the imposition of a siege on it following the victory of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the legislative elections in 2017. 2006.
Sentenced to death
Gaza crossing authority spokesman Hisham Adwan told Tel Aviv Tribune Net, “The occupation of the Rafah land crossing will exacerbate the humanitarian situation, especially for the sick and wounded, and residents will be sentenced to death as a result of stopping the entry of humanitarian aid.”
Official estimates indicate that 11,000 Israeli war wounded and 10,000 cancer patients are in urgent need of travel in order to receive life-saving treatment abroad, after the occupation forces systematically destroyed hospitals, including the only Palestinian-Turkish Friendship Hospital for cancer patients.
These developments came in eastern Rafah, following the occupation army’s announcement of the killing of 3 of its soldiers from the “Givati” and “Nahal” brigades, and the wounding of 12 others in a missile attack claimed by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, last Sunday, targeting a military base in the vicinity of Kerem Shalom crossing, southeast of the city.
Following this operation, the occupation forces closed the only Karam Shalom commercial crossing adjacent to the Rafah crossing, and prevented the passage of commercial goods trucks and humanitarian aid.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said on its account on the WhatsApp platform, “The continued interruption of the entry of aid and fuel supplies through the Rafah crossing will halt the humanitarian response throughout the Gaza Strip.”
The UN agency warned that “the hunger catastrophe that people face, especially in the northern Gaza Strip, will get worse if the entry of supplies stops,” referring to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip, who are isolated by Israel from the southern half of it.
The occupation forces reopened the Kerem Shalom crossing following the temporary truce in November of last year, and according to the government media office, 190 trucks loaded with commercial goods and various humanitarian aid enter it daily, in addition to a smaller number of trucks through the Rafah crossing, including trucks. Fuel and cooking gas.
Before the outbreak of war, more than 500 trucks loaded with various types of goods and humanitarian needs, in addition to fuel, entered through Kerem Shalom daily.
famine
Speaking to Tel Aviv Tribune Net, Director General of the Government Media Office, Ismail Al-Thawabta, placed the occupation’s decision to stop the entry of aid and close the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings, in the context of “completion of the genocidal war,” and said that “this would aggravate the humanitarian reality in a doubly and catastrophic way.”
The reality east of Rafah Governorate indicates a real humanitarian catastrophe, not only for this city alone, but extends to include all governorates of the Gaza Strip, which has been experiencing a tragic state of systematic starvation and a shortage of supplies and aid for 7 continuous months. Then comes the occupation’s decision to stop aid and close the crossings, to work on… The humanitarian situation has worsened catastrophically, according to Al-Thawabta.
Al-Thawabta reviewed what the city of Rafah, the smallest city in the Strip, is facing, and said that the occupation army’s storming and closing of the crossings, its decision to stop aid, and imposing a state of confusion among the ranks of medical staff, the wounded, the sick, and the displaced, and forcing them to leave hospitals, schools, and shelter centers by threatening to target them, falls within the context of crimes. Continuous annihilation.
Political and humanitarian dimensions
Professor of Political Science, Dr. Hossam Al-Dajani, said in his interview with Al-Jazeera Net that Rafah differs from other cities in two issues: The first is that it houses more than a million displaced people, and is considered a center for humanitarian work affiliated with international organizations, led by UNRWA, after its withdrawal from the areas of northern Gaza as a result of Israeli military operations.
The second issue – according to Al-Dajani – relates to Rafah’s geopolitical location, as it is Gaza’s gateway to the outside world with borders linking it with Egypt. Any war on Rafah, especially on the Philadelphia axis, may be interpreted by an Egyptian as a violation of the Camp David Agreement, in addition to the fear of the masses’ influx towards the Egyptian side of the crossing.
Mustafa Ibrahim, a researcher specializing in Israeli affairs, views the occupation of the Rafah crossing and the displacement of the east of the city of Rafah as an attempt by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to put more pressure on the negotiating table regarding reaching a truce agreement.
According to Ibrahim, Netanyahu also seeks to promote an image of victory, and to say to the Israelis, “We have entered Rafah, and we have taken control of one of the symbols of Hamas’ sovereignty and rule, and this will affect its capabilities.”
Ibrahim agrees with Al-Dajani on the specificity of Rafah, and tells Al-Jazeera Net that the Israeli military operation in this city has quickly and immediately affected people’s lives, especially since it houses more than half of the population of the Strip, who no longer have any hospital for treatment, and Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital has been discharged. The only government station stopped serving, as people were displaced from it.
With the hospital out of service, the dialysis unit and x-ray services are no longer available in the city of Rafah. Ibrahim expects an increase in death rates among patients and wounded if the military operation continues and expands geographically.