Israel-Gaza latest: Military orders evacuation of Rafah as UN warns food supplies will ‘run out tomorrow’

Earlier, we reported that an emergency doctor had told us about several children who had suffered horrifying injuries that he said were the result of Israeli airstrikes this morning and earlier this week.

The Hamas-run health ministry has claimed that the majority of those killed or wounded in the Gaza Strip over the past seven months have been women and children.

Below, we print in full his quotes detailing these stories. Readers are advised that the content is of a graphic nature.

“We’ve had numerous young children and teenagers with blast and burn injuries from this morning’s attacks,” he said.

“One teenage boy came in in respiratory arrest. We revived him initially with oxygen and ventilation. However, it became apparent that his lung had been penetrated by the shrapnel and it had torn a hole in his heart. We did open heart surgery in the resuscitation room and attempted to repair the holes in his heart but despite our best efforts we were unable to revive him.

“There have been many other children here who came in with extensive burns, affecting anywhere between 20 and 50 per cent of their body surface. They are in extreme pain and their skin is sloughing off, and we’ve been struggling to keep up with the amount of pain relief they need and to dress the burns and the many lacerations and wounds.

“We’ve had another child who was brought in after having drowned in the sea. The child’s father said that the children were playing at the beach and they were being shot whilst at the beach and so many children ran into the sea in order to try and avoid getting shot. The drowned child was brought into the emergency room with severe breathing problems and has now been put on a mechanical ventilator.”

An emergency doctor based in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis has said hospital staff are “at the end of their reserves” after a “barrage of patients”.

Based out of the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Yunis, the doctor recounted to The Independent several graphic stories concerning the wellbeing of Palestinian children injured this morning and in other airstrikes.

Hospitals have been under further strain after Israeli tanks crossed and then blocked the Egyptian crossing into Rafah,  the southernmost city in Gaza, at the start of this week ahead of a ground offensive.

“We’ve had a barrage of patients being brought to hospital: by donkey cart, by pickup truck, carried in on foot, by ambulance,” he said in a voice note.

“The situation here is dire. Staff are very much at the end of their reserves. Many doctors and nurses have been unable to get to work but also, have said they have learnt the lessons from previous area invasions and are fearful for the hospital being invaded. They fear being buried in mass graves, like at Nasser [hospital].”

A resident of Rafah has said people are “confused” after Israeli forces dropped evacuation leaflets onto the southern city of Gaza this morning.

The citizen, who asked only to be identified as Ali, told The Independent that the hundreds of thousands of civilians in the area “do not know if they should move from the west or middle area of Rafah” to avoid being caught up in Israel’s imminent ground offensive.

“People are confused regarding the news they’re hearing,” he said. “They do not know if they should move from the west or middle area of Rafah, or the areas that were not identified as safe places or dangerous places.”

He added that many were “severely disappointed” about the incoming Israeli ground assault given the “good news” they celebrated when Hamas accepted an earlier ceasefire proposal.

That deal, co-authored by Egypt and Qatar last weekend, and signed off by the US, was rejected by Israel, who insisted upon eventually carrying out an offensive in Rafah.

Ali said the good news has “quickly turned from positive to negative”.

He added that the nearest city to Rafah, Khan Yunis, has been “mostly destroyed and is not suitable for residence.

“It does not have the basic human necessities, especially water. There are empty places, but there is no water, no infrastructure to move there. So how can they survive there,” he said.

Below, you can see in full the Israeli evacuation notice issued to Palestinians in Rafah, the southernmost major city in Gaza.

The leaflets were airdropped into Rafah and posted by the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee on X, formerly Twitter.

“To all the residents and displaced people in Rafah area, Rafah’s camps, Al Shaboura, and the neighborhoods of Al-Jeneina, administrative district and Khirbet Al-Adas in the blocks of (31.27.26.25.9.8.7.6), you are in a dangerous combat zone,” the note read.

“The IDF will act with extreme force against terrorist organizations in your areas of residence. Everyone in these areas is risking their lives and the lives of their family members.

“For your safety, we ask you to evacuate immediately to the humanitarian zone. It is strictly forbidden to get close to the security wall. Getting close to the wall poses a threat to your life and security.”

At least 19 people, including eight women and eight children, were killed overnight in central Gaza in three strikes that hit the towns of Zawaida, Maghazi and Deir al Balah, according to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah and an Associated Press journalist.

Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives in Gaza have killed more than 34,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures.

Much of Gaza has been destroyed and 80% of its population have been driven from their homes.

The few remaining hospitals in Rafah are at 250 per cent capacity, while food and fuel are running out, the United Nations has warned, as heavy fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants moves towards the centre of Gaza’s border city.

Crucial aid crossings remain inaccessible, meaning supplies of food, medicines, tents and blankets are dwindling. The World Food Programme will run out of food for distribution in southern Gaza by Saturday and there are no tents, blankets or bedding to set up new locations for displaced people, said Georgios Petropoulos, an official with the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Rafah.

Israel ordered new evacuations in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah on Saturday as it prepared to expand its operation, saying it was also moving into an area in northern Gaza where Hamas has regrouped.

Army spokesman, Avichay Adraee, told Palestinians in Jabaliya and Beit Lahiya cities and the surrounding areas to leave their homes and head to shelters in the west of Gaza City, warning that people were in “a dangerous combat zone” and that Israel was going to strike with “great force.”

Heavy fighting is underway in northern Gaza, where Hamas appeared to have once again regrouped in an area where Israel has already launched punishing assaults.

Battles erupted this week in the Zeitoun area on the outskirts of Gaza City, in the northern part of the territory. Northern Gaza was the first target of the ground offensive. Israel said late last year that it had mostly dismantled Hamas in the area.

UN aid agencies warned that supplies are running short, and operations could halt within days in Gaza.

“For five days, no fuel and virtually no humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip, and we are scraping the bottom of the barrel,” Hamish Young, Unicef Senior Emergency Coordinator in Gaza, said.

Israel said it cannot win the war without rooting out Hamas fighters it believes are in Rafah.

Israeli forces have sealed off eastern Rafah from the south and have shut down the only crossing between the enclave and Egypt.

Police have arrested dozens in the US as they dismantled pro-Palestinian protest encampments at the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology yesterday.

Campus police at the University of Pennsylvania removed protesters from an encampment that had been in place for over two weeks.

Overall, 33 people, including faculty and seven students, were arrested and charged with trespassing.

Police arrived at MIT early in the morning, and gave protesters about 15 minutes to leave, and arrested the 10 who remained, the university’s president said.

In 75 instances of campus protests recorded by the Associated Press since 18 April, about 2,900 people have been arrested at 57 colleges and universities.

The Biden administration said yesterday that Israel’s use of US-provided arms in Gaza likely violated international humanitarian law, but added that the evidence for determining it was incomplete.

US said it had “reasonable” evidence that Israel breached international law protecting civilians in how it conducted its war against Hamas.

But the Biden administration said it wasn’t able to link specific US weapons to individual attacks by Israeli forces in Gaza.

The first-of-its-kind assessment comes following over seven months of Israel invading Gaza with airstrikes, ground fighting and aid restrictions that have claimed nearly 35,000 Palestinian lives, mostly women and children.