Concern mounts for civilians as Israel orders Rafah evacuation | DW News

Concern mounts for civilians as Israel orders Rafah evacuation | DW News

Israel’s Army is calling on residents of gaza’s southern city of Rapa to evacuate to a humanitarian area Israel’s defense minister says military action in Rafa is necessary because Hamas is refusing truce proposals that would free hostages held in Gaza Palestinians in Rafa’s East have been told to go to the al- maazi refugee camp near kanun a senior Hamas official has called it a dangerous escalation there’s been growing International alarm over an assault in Rafa more than a million people have been Sheltering there since war broke out after the October 7 Terror attacks by Hamas these displaced Palestinians in Rafa are again preparing to move they have received orders from the Israeli Army to leave the eastern part of the city we have no shelter no food no water none of that we were promised by the Israeli Army and the International Community that Rafa would be protected and that’s why we came here but I regret to say they’ve told us to evacuate or we’ll face something that no one wishes to face where am I to go I don’t have money or anything I’m so tired me and the children who are with me where are we to go the Israeli military says it is evacuating 100,000 people from Eastern Rafa they are being told to go to the al- mawasi humanitarian area shown here in red Israel says it has now expanded this Zone to handle the influx Israel describes Rafa as the last significant Hamas strong hold after 7 months of War triggered by the October 7th Terror attacks Rafa has been targeted by isra air strikes but there is now growing International concern over a ground assault eight groups say that would be catastrophic for the more than a million Palestinians Sheltering in the city for more on this I’m joined now here in the studio by Carl scow he’s the deputy executive director of the world food program one of the main organizations delivering life-saving Aid to Gaza thank you very much for being with us today now the ceasefire talks have stalled again Hamas has fired rockets at Israeli positions killing several Israelis sold Israel now says it will go ahead with its assault on Rafa what do you make of these latest developments what are the implications for the humanitarian situation in gasa well we are of course extremely concerned about these latest developments not least for the civilians that are in GA in Rafa at the moment more than half of the population more than one million people is in gasa so uh you know it is first and foremost Our concern for for those civilians if this operation goes ahead but secondly of course we all as humanitarians operate out of Gaza and we’ve been using Shalom as the main entry point into Gaza so also the implications for our humanitarian operation risk being huge and this was at the moment where we were beginning to get more access where were beginning to get some Traction in our efforts to push back uh on the famine not least in the north of so this risk to bring us back basically when we were about to make some progress on on the humanitarian front so definitely a setback what are you hearing from your colleagues in Gaza right now about the situation on the ground there well of course extremely concerned again we are also looking at how we can move uh our staff uh and our warehouses uh uh our vehicles and Facilities uh further up north at the moment or we had already begun to do so over the past few weeks so that we can continue to keep our operations up and running you know we have able to reach about a million people a month uh during this crisis thanks to support from donors like Germany and again we were about to step up that support not least in the north where we have seen you know the most severe uh needs and so uh you know we were hoping that we would rather see a ceasefire so that we can scale up further reaching you know beyond uh the million up to two million people um a month and not least those most vulnerable up in the north instead we’ve seen these rocket attacks Israeli soldiers killed border crossings closed instead of being opening instead of opening uh Israel says it’s doing everything in its power to prevent civilian casualties uh based on what you’ve been seeing in hearing would you say that Israel has indeed taken all measures necessary to protect civilians I mean looking at Rafa more specifically I visited Rafa I mean it’s a place that is jammed with internally displaced people uh everywhere there are camping on the streets the sidewalks uh schools any public building has been overtaken as a shelter uh and so it’s very difficult to see a military operation in that Urban environment that doesn’t also have civilian cash so again we are extremely concerned about that and we are extremely concerned Beyond as I mentioned we had been in the past three weeks been able to get into the north uh we have opened some 16 bakeries across uh the strip uh only the past week we were able to use also the northern crossing erit crossing into gasa and so again we were able to see some traction what we would hope for was to rather now be able to diversify our assistance not only food but go into also nutritional supplementals restocking some of the health centers because that’s also needed not least with the most malnutrition vulnerable children but again yeah extremely concerning developments overnight you’re executive director at at the world food program uh Cindy McCain she says that there’s a quote full-blown famine uh in the north of Gaza can you tell us how many people there have actually perished for lack of food or or suffering from M nutrition we don’t have that exact data uh because also surveys are difficult to do not least in the north where the situation is uh the worse and we don’t make that formal declaration it’s done through a scientific rigorous Pro but what we can point to is family like conditions in parts of Northern Gaza when we have now had new access to certain areas people are climbing out of the rubble and extremely weak and we’ve also seen children who have hunger related death or have died from Hunger related diseases and so uh you know we have famine likee conditions um uh we had been able to open up four bakeries in the North in the past two weeks only H and you know uh being able to bring people bread for the first time in 6 months it’s not not only important for the food that he carries but also for psychological impact bread is a key element for the Palestinian people so there was also some element of Hope there and I just really hope that we can continue to build on that that progress that was made and that it’s not reversed with this latest development Carl thank you very much for talking with us that was Carl scy Deputy executive director of the world food program thank you for having

Israel’s army is calling on residents of Gaza’s southern city of Rafah to evacuate to a humanitarian area as “famine-like” conditions continue to build in northern Gaza, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). Israel’s defense minister says military action in Rafah is necessary because Hamas is refusing truce proposals that would free hostages still held in Gaza. More than 1 million people have been sheltering there since war broke out after the Hamas October 7 terror attacks. DW talks to Carl Skau, the Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Programme, one of the main organizations delivering life-saving aid to Gazans.

00:00 Intro and report
02:10 Interview with Carl Skau, the Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Programme

#gaza #israel #aid

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