‘They are dropping leaflets for us to evacuate. People are fleeing. This is too much,’ decried a Palestinian woman with unchewed food in her mouth and hysteria written on her face, while thousands of Palestinians were once again seen walking in serpentine queues after Israeli forces ordered “immediate evacuation” on Monday at the Rafah border.
According to a report by Al Jazeera, the incursion by Israeli warplanes has already killed at least 12 persons.
For those who do not know about the Rafah border crossing, it is a region located in Gaza’s south side which shares a border with the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. The border is a crucial link between Egypt and Gaza as it allows Palestinians to enter the aforementioned country. Additionally, the border is controlled by Egypt and not Israel.
However, tables turned on May 7, Tuesday, when military tanks by Israel barged over the Rafah crossing during the night, creating utmost panic among a million displaced Palestinians who had been seeking shelter ever since the massive destruction of Gaza’s housing properties. According to a report by Al Jazeera, the incursion by Israeli warplanes has already killed at least 12 persons. ‘If they move farther into Rafah, it will be the mother of massacres,’ were the tragic words stated by one of the residents at Rafah.
According to statistics by the Associated Press (AP), the Rafah crossing border shelters approximately 1.4 war-affected Palestinians, which is more than half of the population of the Gaza Strip city. Scores of them have been residing here in overfilled apartments or U.N-provided shelters with extremely dire medical and sanitation facilities. In fact healthcare is a luxury right now as the shelter seekers are facing an acute deficit of basic amenities like toilets, clean water and food essentials. Reports claim many of them dig up holes outside their tent to defaecate to abstain from long queues at the public toilets.
This is because the shelter seekers outnumber humanitarian resources. As per UNICEF calculations, Rafah’s population has surged almost five times its former number of 250,000 persons. Most of them fled to this side of the region after their houses were turned to debris by Israel’s bombs ever since the beginning of the escalation of violence since October 7. In other words, the Rafah border is currently serving as an extremely crucial humanitarian aid to thousands of Palestinians who deserve a safe and hygienic life just like everyone else.
Children under siege in Rafah
Catherine Russell, UNICEF executive director, in a news report, said that ‘Rafah is now a city of children, and these children have nowhere safe to go in Gaza.’ Let’s scrutinise the figures. There are about 6,00,000 children at the Rafah border who are witnessing the current mayhem endorsed by the Benjamin Netanyahu-led Israeli government.
There are about 6,00,000 children at the Rafah border who are witnessing the current mayhem endorsed by the Benjamin Netanyahu-led Israeli government.
There are about 78,000 children who are less than two years old, and 1,75,000 more under five. According to UNICEF, these 6,00,000 children are already enduring a catastrophe in the form of malnourishment, physical disabilities, transmittable diseases and psychotic repercussions of the war.
They have nowhere safe to go. Some of them might have their families, while thousands of them have lost their siblings and parents. It is so unfortunate to accept that the war has compelled so many innocent and beautiful Palestinian children to shut their eyes, either because of injuries to veil a wound in their pupil (the black part of the eye) or by going into a physical and mental state of protracted loss of consciousness – coma – after losing their family.
Israeli invasion of Rafah puts 6,00,000 young lives at stake
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday evening blatantly condemned Israeli’s military operation at the border crossing and said, ‘Rafah is the epicenter of humanitarian operations in Gaza. Attacking Rafah will further upend our efforts to support people in dire humanitarian straits as famine looms. An assault on Rafah would be a strategic mistake, a political calamity, and a humanitarian nightmare.’
Meanwhile, according to the Gaza healthcare ministry, till now, the genocide has claimed the lives of as many as 34,789 Palestinians and it is but obvious that by this invasion, the lives of 1.4 million people are at stake, and among them, 6,00,000 are mentally, emotionally and physically torn children at a time when the war has entered more than 200 days. If Israel’s military operation in Rafah amplifies, which is likely to happen, there is a risk to a whopping number of innocent children. These young ones deserve the right to live, and the right to dream just like all the other children in the world.
Warning signs
An eight-year-old girl, who broke her leg in an Israeli airplane attack, told Aljazeera, that she could not travel back and forth since the closure of the Rafah border. Which means, the young girl was denied treatment. ‘I am supposed to have an operation. Because the border crossing is shut today, I could not travel.’
An eight-year-old girl, who broke her leg in an Israeli airplane attack, told Aljazeera, that she could not travel back and forth since the closure of the Rafah border.
This clearly depicts that children are not safe in the region and no one has guaranteed them safety. According to the latest reports, the Israeli army has not declared the number of days it wants to continue military operation in Rafah, however, sources claim the officials may not want to disperse it anytime soon as they believe the border is a major stronghold of Hamas.
Meanwhile, ever since the orders of “immediate evacuation”, displaced and petrified Palestinians at the Rafah border are once again lurching or traveling on their donkey carts to move towards the central and northern side of the Gaza Strip, and this is going to be their fifth displacement. This mass migration, with thousands of children, is the devastating lived reality for Palestinians, today.
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