Israel launched deadly attacks on war-torn Gaza on Sunday that claimed the lives of two doctors, after extending an evacuation order for Rafah.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said the two doctors were killed in the central city of Deir al-Balah after heavy gunfire from Israeli helicopters was reported near the city.
The attacks come as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate ceasefire, the return of hostages and an “increase” in humanitarian aid to the besieged Palestinian territory.
“I repeat my call, the world’s call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and an immediate increase in humanitarian aid,” Guterres said in a video address to an international donor conference in Kuwait.
‘But a ceasefire will only be the beginning. It will be a long road out of the devastation and trauma of this war,’ he added.
Palestinians prepare to flee Rafah after Israeli forces launched a ground and air operation in the eastern part of the southern Gaza city on May 12, 2024.
View of the damage suffered in an apartment after the impact of an Israeli rocket launched from the Gaza Strip
Palestinians residing in several areas of Rafah in Gaza, where Israeli attacks are particularly intense, flee to what they perceive as safer regions, taking whatever belongings they can on May 11, 2024.
A Palestinian flees Rafah after Israeli forces launched a ground and air operation in the eastern part of the southern Gaza city.
Israeli attacks on Gaza continued on Sunday after it extended an evacuation order for Rafah despite international outcry over its military incursion into the city’s eastern parts, effectively closing a key aid crossing.
It comes after Guterres said on Friday that Gaza risked an “epic humanitarian disaster” if Israel launched a large-scale ground operation in Rafah.
“The war in Gaza is causing horrific human suffering, devastating lives, destroying families and leaving large numbers of people homeless, hungry and traumatized,” Guterres said.
Witnesses said Israel had carried out strikes in Rafah, near the crossing with Egypt, on Saturday, and images showed smoke rising over the city.
Israeli troops defied international opposition this week and entered eastern areas of the city, effectively closing one key aid crossing and suspending traffic through another.
Israel extended an evacuation order for eastern Rafah, after saying 300,000 people had fled the city since the army urged people to leave earlier in the week.
Residents piled water tanks, mattresses and other belongings into vehicles and prepared to flee again.
“We don’t know where to go,” said Farid Abu Eida, who was preparing to leave Rafah after being displaced there from Gaza City.
Smoke rises during the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip from a position in southern Israel on May 12, 2024.
Displaced Palestinians are evacuated from the Tal al-Zaatar Palestinian refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on May 11, 2024
A woman and a child arrive on foot in the Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City on May 11, 2024.
“There is nowhere left in Gaza that is safe or not overcrowded… There is nowhere we can go.”
Residents were told to head to the Al-Mawasi “humanitarian zone” on the northwest coast of Rafah.
But EU chief Charles Michel said on social media that civilians in Rafah were being ordered to move to “unsafe areas”, calling it “unacceptable”.
The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has also denounced as “intolerable” the practice of forcing civilians to move to unsafe areas in Rafah.
Borrell took to X, formerly Twitter, to address the situation in southern Gaza, where Israel launched a ground attack.
‘Forcing civilians to evacuate Rafah to unsafe areas is intolerable. “Israel is obliged by international law to guarantee the safety of civilians,” Borrell wrote.
‘We continue to urge Israel not to proceed with a ground operation in Rafah. “This would further exacerbate an already dire humanitarian crisis.”
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it had begun transferring 22 patients from a field hospital in Rafah, saying Israel’s operations in the city were “making it impossible to provide life-saving medical assistance.”
Hamas accused Israel of “expanding the raid on Rafah to include new areas in the center and west of the city.”
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said “we have eliminated dozens of terrorists in eastern Rafah” and the army said troops were fighting “armed terrorists” at the crossing and had found “numerous underground tunnels.” .
Internally displaced Palestinians arrive in Khan Younis after leaving Rafah following an evacuation order issued by the Israeli army, southern Gaza Strip, May 11, 2024.
EU chief Charles Michel said on social media that civilians in Rafah were being ordered to “unsafe areas”, denouncing it as “unacceptable”.
Sunday’s attack comes as mediation efforts toward a truce and the release of hostages appear to have stalled.
US President Joe Biden said on Saturday that a ceasefire would be reached “tomorrow” if Hamas released the hostages.
‘Israel said it’s up to Hamas, if they wanted to do it, we could finish it tomorrow. And the ceasefire would begin tomorrow,” Biden told a crowd of about 100 people at a fundraising event in Seattle.
The US president raised the issue after warning Israel on Wednesday that he would stop supplying artillery shells and other weapons if its forces attacked the southern Gaza city of Rafah, amid concerns about civilian casualties caused by the use of American bombs.
“If they go to Rafah, I will not provide them with the weapons that have been used… to deal with the cities,” Biden told CNN.
“We are not going to supply the weapons or artillery shells that have been used.”
The war began with Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, which killed more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to official Israeli figures.
During the attack, the militants also took hostages. Israel estimates that 128 of them remain in Gaza, including 36 who the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,971 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s Health Ministry.