HEAVY fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian resistance fighters on the outskirts of the southern Gaza city of Rafah has left crucial nearby aid crossings inaccessible and caused over 100,000 people to flee north, a United Nations official said today.
A UN general assembly vote took place later in the day over granting Palestine steps towards full UN membership.
Israel’s plans for a full-scale invasion of Rafah appear to be on hold for now, with the United States deeply opposed and stepping up pressure by threatening to withhold arms.
But even the Israeli incursion launched earlier this week threatens to worsen Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe.
Heavy fighting was also under way in northern Gaza, where Hamas and other resistance fighters appeared to have once again regrouped in an area where Israel has already launched punishing assaults.
Over a million Palestinians have fled to Rafah to escape fighting elsewhere, with many packed into UN-run shelters or squalid encampments.
Rafah, on the border with Egypt, is a crucial hub for bringing in humanitarian aid.
The UN’s office for the co-ordination of humanitarian affairs says about 110,000 people have fled Rafah and that food and fuel supplies in the city are critically low.
Georgios Petropoulos, a UN official working in Rafah, said the two main crossings near the city remain closed, cutting off supplies and preventing medical evacuations and the movement of humanitarian staff.
“Even if there were assurances to us being able to pass through a corridor, the proximity — so close to a military involved in fighting — is just not acceptable for something that has to be a humanitarian zone,” he said.
Mr Petropoulos said about 30,000 people were leaving Rafah daily. “We simply have no tents, we have no blankets, no bedding, none of the items that you would expect a population on the move to be able to get from the humanitarian system.”
The UN general assembly was expected to vote on Friday to support a resolution that would grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine and call on the security council to favourably reconsider its request to become the 194th member of the United Nations.
The US vetoed a widely backed council resolution on April 18 that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for Palestine.
US deputy ambassador Robert Wood said his country opposed the resolution and argued “the best way to ensure Palestinian full membership in the UN is to do that through negotiations with Israel."
