As Israel attacks Rafah Palestinians are living in tents and searching for food We have nothing
As Israel attacks Rafah Palestinians are living in tents along Gaza’s coast, filling the beach and spilling into empty lots, fields and streets. Families dig trenches to use as toilets. Fathers search for food and water. Children dig through garbage and wrecked buildings for wood or cardboard for their mothers to burn for cooking. bvs bvs bvs bvs bvs bvs bvs bvs bvs bvs bvs bvs bvs bvs bvs bvs bvs bvs bvs bvs bvs
Over the past three weeks:
Israel’s offensive in Rafah has sent nearly a million Palestinians fleeing the southern Gaza city. Most have already been displaced multiple times during Israel’s nearly 8-month-old war in Gaza, which is aimed at destroying the militant Hamas group but has devastated the territory and caused what the United Nations says is a near-famine.
FILE – Palestinians displaced by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip set up a tent camp in Rafah on Dec. 6, 2023. The tent camps stretch for more than 16 kilometers (10 miles) along Gaza’s coast, filling the beach and sprawling into empty lots, fields and town streets. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali, file)
Palestinians displaced by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip set up a tent camp in Rafah on Dec. 6, 2023.(AP Photo/Hatem Ali, file)
The situation has been worsened by a plunge in the amount of food, fuel and other supplies reaching the U.N. and other aid groups to distribute to the population. Palestinians, who relied in part on humanitarian aid even before the war, have largely been on their own to find the basics for survival.
“The situation is tragic. You have 20 people in the tent, with no clean water, no electricity. We have nothing,” said Mohammad Abu Radwan, a schoolteacher with his wife, six children and other extended family.
“I can’t explain what it feels like living through constant displacement, losing your loved ones,” he said. “All of this destroys us mentally.”
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR As Israel attacks
Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli strike where displaced people were staying in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, May 27, 2024. Palestinian health workers said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 35 people in the area. Israel’s army confirmed Sunday’s strike and said it hit a Hamas installation and killed two senior Hamas militants. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Netanyahu says deadly Israeli strike in Rafah was the result of a ‘tragic mishap’
From right, Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares Bueno and Ireland’s Foreign Minister Micheal Martin pose for a photo, at the end of a media conference, during talks on the Middle East, in Brussels, Monday, May 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
Relations between EU and Israel plummet as Spain, Ireland prepare to recognize a Palestinian state
FILE – Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on buildings near the separating wall between Egypt and Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. An order by the top United Nations court for Israel to halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah deepens its disconnect with the United States. (AP Photo/Ramez Habboub, File)
UN court order demanding that Israel halt its Gaza offensive further isolates the US position
Abu Radwan fled Rafah soon after the Israeli assault on the city began on May 6 as bombardment neared the house where he was sheltering. He and three other families paid $1,000 for donkey carts to take them to the outskirts of Khan Younis, about 6 kilometers (3.6 miles) away. It took a day of living outside before they could assemble the materials for a makeshift tent. Next to the tent, they dug a toilet trench, hanging blankets and old clothes around it for privacy.
Families usually have to buy the wood and tarps for their tents, which can run up to $500, not counting ropes, nails and the cost of transporting the material, the humanitarian group Mercy Corps said.
Israeli authorities controlling all entry points into Gaza have been letting greater numbers of private commercial trucks into the territory, the U.N. and aid workers say. More fruits and vegetables are found in markets, and prices on some have fallen, Palestinians say.
Still, most homeless Palestinians can’t afford them.
Many in Gaza have not received salaries for months and savings are depleting. Even those who have money in the bank often can’t withdraw it because there is so little physical cash in the territory. Many turn to black market exchanges that charge up to 20% to give cash for transfers from accounts.
FILE – A tent camp housing Palestinians displaced by the Israeli offensive is seen in Rafah, Gaza Strip, on Feb. 27, 2024. The tent camps stretch for more than 16 kilometers (10 miles) along Gaza’s coast, filling the beach and sprawling into empty lots, fields and town streets. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali, file)
A tent camp housing Palestinians displaced by the Israeli offensive is seen in Rafah, Gaza Strip, on Feb. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali, file)
Meanwhile, humanitarian convoys with free supplies have fallen to nearly their lowest levels in the war, the U.N. says.
Previously, the U.N. received several hundred trucks a day.
That has dropped to an average of 53 trucks a day since May 6, according to the latest figures from the U.N. humanitarian office on Friday. Some 600 trucks a day are needed to stave off starvation, according to USAID.
In the past three weeks, most of the incoming aid has entered through two crossings from Israel in northern Gaza and via a U.S.-built floating pier taking deliveries by sea. But that pier has suspended operations after damage from rough seas, three U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
The two main crossings in the south, Rafah from Egypt and Kerem Shalom from Israel. Are either not operating or are largely inaccessible for the U.N. because of fighting nearby. Israel says it has been letting hundreds of trucks through Kerem Shalom. But the U.N. has only been able to collect about 200 of them on the Gaza side over the past three weeks. Because of Israeli military restrictions, the expanding offensive. Israeli airstrikes and Hamas rocket launches. UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma said Tuesday.
Entry of fuel fallen As Israel attacks about a sixth of what needed:
Touma said. That makes it more difficult to keep hospitals, bakeries, water pumps and aid trucks working.
The American humanitarian group Anera “is having difficulty distributing what we are able to bring in to the people. It because there’s so little fuel for trucks,” spokesperson Steve Fake said.
Rafah poured into a humanitarian zone declare by Israel that is centered on Muwasi. A largely barren strip of coastal land. The zone expanded north and east to reach the edges of Khan Younis and the central town of Deir. Al-Balah, both of which have also filled with people.
“As we can see, there is nothing ‘humanitarian’ about these areas.” Said Suze van Meegen, head of operations in Gaza for the Norwegian Refugee Council, who is in the Rafah area.
Much of the humanitarian zone has no charity kitchens or food market. And it has no functioning hospitals, only a few field hospitals and even smaller medical tents that can’t handle emergencies. They pass out painkillers and antibiotics if they have them, according to Mercy Corps.
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