Rafah Displaced Flee Military Incursion Fears: Humanitarian Coordinator

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Published Jun 22, 2024

Press conference by James McGoldrick, Humanitarian Coordinator Ad Interim for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, on the situation in Gaza.

Humanitarian Coordinator James McGoldrick today (6 Mar) said, “displaced people who were in Rafah have left now because they fear a military incursion might happen,” and warned that “there are no easy options where people would go to.”

McGoldrick, who is the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator Ad Interim for the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) told reporters in New York that some “have moved back North to Deir al Balah” while others “have gone to Khan Yunis, and many of them have gone to Al Mawasi, which is the area in the sand dunes from the coast.”

He said, “there's obviously enormous and growing needs for over 2.3 million people living in appalling conditions,” noting that “humanitarian supplies that have come into Gaza in February fell by half of what they were in January.”

The humanitarian official, briefing via video teleconference, said, “challenges are we don't have an adequate supply chain, and we're not able to pre-position supplies in the event of a military incursion” with “hundreds of thousands,” expected to be on the move.

He said, “we have to have a plan that allows us to, you know, prevent famine. We need to significantly scale up the humanitarian assistance in there.”

McGoldrick called on Israel to make a military road on Gaza’s eastern side available for the delivery of humanitarian supplies.

He said, “we have to use this military road, this fenced road at the side, on the eastern side, to allow material to come from the crossing point at Kerem Shalom and Rafah, all the way up to the north and into the north, and to a crossing point there. And we have to get up at least 300 trucks a day. Right now, we're lucky if we are getting about 150.”

Clearly, McGoldrick said, “people want to get back to a normal life.”

He said, “when you get a time of Ramadan coming up, that pulls into focus how desperate people find themselves. And so, I think people are looking for a way to get back to something normal, something more stable and something more certain, and hopefully that will happen in the near future, and hopefully that we get some sort of pause which will allow us to stabilise people's health, people’s food security and that's something we are hoping for in the coming weeks.”