Israel intensifies its attacks on Rafah as desperate Palestinians struggle in tents

DEIR BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Tent camps stretch more than 16 kilometers (10 miles) along Gaza The coast, filling the beach and extending into empty spaces, fields and city streets. Families dig trenches to use as latrines. Fathers scavenge for food and water, while children dig through trash and destroyed buildings for scraps of wood or cardboard for their mothers to burn for cooking.

During the past three weeks, The Israeli attack on Rafah This led to the flight of approximately one million Palestinians from southern Gaza City and dispersion over a wide area. Most of them have already been displaced several times during Israel’s first eight months The war in GazaWhich aims to destroy Hamas, but it has devastated the region and caused what the United Nations says is a near-famine.

The situation has worsened dramatically Decrease in the amount of food, fuel and other supplies Reaching out to the United Nations and other relief organizations for distribution to the population. Palestinians have been largely on their own to resettle their families and find the basics for survival.

Israeli authorities Controlling all entry points into Gaza The United Nations and aid workers say the government has allowed greater numbers of private commercial trucks to enter the area. Palestinians say that more fruits and vegetables are now available in the markets, and the prices of some have decreased.

However, most displaced Palestinians cannot afford it. Many in Gaza have not received their salaries for months, and their savings are being depleted. Even those who have money in the bank often cannot withdraw it due to the lack of cash in the area. Many turn to black market exchanges that charge fees of up to 20% to offer cash for transfers from bank accounts.

Meanwhile, the United Nations says humanitarian convoys carrying supplies for the UN and other relief organizations that it distributes for free have fallen to nearly their lowest levels in the war.

Previously, the United Nations received several hundred trucks daily. That rate has fallen to an average of 53 trucks per day since May 6, according to the latest figures released by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Friday. About 600 trucks a day are needed to stave off famine, according to the US Agency for International Development.

In the past three weeks, most of the aid received has entered through two crossings from Israel in northern Gaza and via A A US-built floating dock receives shipments by sea. The two main crossings in the south, Rafah from Egypt and Kerem Shalom from Israel, are either not functioning or largely inaccessible to the United Nations due to fighting nearby. Israel says it has allowed hundreds of trucks to pass through the Kerem Shalom crossing, but the UN has only been able to collect about 170 of them on the Gaza side over the past three weeks because they cannot reach the crossing.

Fuel entry has fallen to about a third of what it was before the Rafah attack, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. This reduced amount should be extended between keeping hospitals, bakeries, water pumps and aid trucks running.

“We are having difficulty distributing what we can bring to the people who need it because of the lack of fuel for the trucks,” said Steve Vick, spokesman for the American humanitarian group Anera.

Most Fleeing from Rafah The rockets streamed into Israel’s declared humanitarian zone centered on the Al-Mawasi area, a largely barren strip of coastal land. The area was expanded north and east to reach the outskirts of the city of Khan Yunis and the city of Deir al-Balah in the center of the country, both of which were also populated.

“As we can see, there is nothing ‘humanitarian’ in these areas,” said Susie van Megen, head of Gaza operations for the Norwegian Refugee Council, which has staff working in Mawasi.

Most of the humanitarian zone does not have charity kitchens or food markets. There are no functioning hospitalsOnly a few field hospitals and even smaller medical tents that cannot handle emergencies do not distribute painkillers and antibiotics unless they have them, according to Mercy Corps testimony. “It is only a matter of time before people begin to suffer severely from food insecurity,” the group said.

The Al Mawasi area is mostly coastal dunes and has no water resources or sewage networks. Mercy Corps said that with human waste accumulating near tents and garbage accumulating, many people are suffering from gastrointestinal diseases such as hepatitis and diarrhea, in addition to skin allergies and lice.

One aid worker who fled Rafah said he was lucky and could rent a house in Deir al-Balah. “You can’t walk” into town from all the tents that have been set up, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because his agency would not allow him to speak.

Many of the people he sees on the street turn yellow from jaundice or hepatitis, and the “disgusting stench” comes from sewage and piles of garbage.

Israel says its attack in Rafah is vital to achieving its war goal of destruction agitation In Gaza after the group October 7 attackThe militants killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped about 250 others from southern Israel. The Israeli campaign on Gaza The attack resulted in the deaths of about 36,000 people, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Aid groups have warned for months that the attack on Rafah would exacerbate the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. So far, Israeli operations have remained below the level of the comprehensive invasion it had planned, despite the expansion of the scope of fighting over the past three weeks from the eastern parts of Rafah to the central areas of the city. On Sunday, a raid hit a tent camp in the western part of Rafah, causing a large fire. Killing at least 45 people, according to health officials. prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu admits “tragic mistake” It happened.

Since the displacement caused by the attack, satellite images taken by Planet Labs PBC on May 24 showed dense new tent camps stretching along the coast from just north of Rafah to outside Deir al-Balah. Tents and ramshackle shelters are densely packed in mazes of corrugated metal and plastic sheets, blankets and tarps covered with wooden sticks for privacy.

Tamer Saeed Abu Al-Khair said that he goes out at 6 a.m. every day to get water, and usually returns at noon to the tent located outside Khan Yunis, where he and nearly twenty of his relatives live. His three children, ages 4 to 10, are always sick, but he said he has to send them out to collect wood for a fire, even though he fears they will come across unexploded bombs in the destroyed homes.

His elderly father has difficulty moving, so he has to use the bathroom in a bucket, and Abu Al-Khair must regularly pay for his transportation to the nearest hospital for dialysis.

His wife, Lina Abu Al-Khair, said: “Wood costs money, water costs money, and everything costs money.” She collapsed into sobs. “I fear that one day I will wake up and have lost my children, my mother, my husband, and my family.”

___

Magdy and Keith reported from Cairo. Associated Press correspondents Sarah El-Deeb in Beirut, Fatima Khaled in Cairo, and Mohammed Jahjouh in Mawasi, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP’s war coverage on https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war