Tens of thousands of civilians fled the southern Gaza city of Rafah ahead of a threatened Israeli ground offensive, as Palestinians on Wednesday mark the anniversary of their “Nakba” or “catastrophe” of 1948.
During the war that accompanied Israel’s creation, around 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes and many took refuge in what would later become the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
On the eve of the “Nakba” commemoration, thousands of people took part in an annual march that took them through the ruins of villages that Palestinians were expelled from during the 1948 war that led to Israel’s creation.
Wednesday’s commemoration of the “Nakba” comes as multiple battles between Israeli troops and Hamas militants across the Gaza Strip forced waves of Palestinian mass displacement.
Nearly 450,000 Palestinians have been displaced from Rafah since May 6, and around 100,000 from northern Gaza, UN agencies said.
That means around a quarter of Gaza’s population of 2.4 million people have been displaced again in about one week.
UN chief Antonio Guterres repeated his call for a humanitarian ceasefire to allow more aid into the besieged territory.
“I reiterate my appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and for the release of all hostages. I call for the Rafah crossing to be re-opened immediately and for the unimpeded humanitarian access throughout Gaza,” he posted Tuesday on social media site X.
The war and siege have triggered a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with the UN repeatedly lamenting aid restrictions as famine stalks the north.
Since Israeli troops moved into eastern Rafah, the aid crossing point from Egypt has remained closed and the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing lacks “safe and logistically viable access”, a UN report said late Monday.
Qatar, which has been mediating peace talks, said Gazans “have not received any aid” since May 9.
Attack on aid convoy
Israeli police on Tuesday said they had opened an investigation after right-wing activists stopped and ransacked at least seven Gaza-bound aid trucks coming from Jordan, leaving food spilt on the road.
One of the activists, Hana Giat, said that with hostages still held by Hamas militants, “no humanitarian aid should go in before our hostages are out, safe in their homes”.
Both the United States, which called it “a total outrage”, and Britain, said they would raise concerns about the incident with Israel’s government.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called on Israeli authorities to stop the attacks and hold those responsible to account.
“I’m outraged by the repeated & still unchecked attacks perpetrated by Israeli extremists on aid convoys on their way to Gaza, including from Jordan. Hundreds of thousands of civilians are starving,” Borrell posted on X late Tuesday.
Israel’s relentless bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza have since killed at least 35,173 people, mostly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Clashes have rocked densely crowded Rafah but also flared again in northern and central Gaza months after troops and tanks first entered those areas.
At least five people were killed, including a woman and her child, and several others wounded, in two Israeli air strikes on Gaza City on Tuesday night, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.
Israel last week defied a chorus of warnings — including from top ally Washington which paused a shipment of bombs — and sent troops and tanks into the east of Rafah to pursue militants.
Despite threatening to withhold some arms over concerns of a Rafah assault, US President Joe Biden’s administration informed Congress on Tuesday of a $1 billion weapons package for Israel, official sources told AFP.