UN: Israeli occupation’s incursion into Rafah will cause “massacre”

GENEVA, May 04 (YPA) – A spokesman for the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs, Jens Laerke, said on Friday that any Israeli occupation incursion into Rafah would put the lives of hundreds of thousands of Gazans at risk.

He added that would be “a massive blow to humanitarian operations in the entire Strip.”

The Israeli occupation had threatened to carry out an operation against the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, which houses about a million displaced people who fled the fighting in the north and were crowded into temporary shelters and camps.

The spokesman stated at a press briefing in Geneva: “It could be a massacre of civilians and a massive blow to the humanitarian relief operation in the entire sector. Because it is mainly managed from Rafah.”

Laerke noted that the relief operations coming out of Rafah include medical clinics and food distribution points, including centers for children suffering from malnutrition.

YPA