Israel Gaza: UN fears Rafah attack could result in “slaughter”

A high-ranking UN official has said that if Israel attacks Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, a lot of people could be killed.

Humanitarian leader Martin Griffiths said that the people in Gaza are going through a really harsh and intense attack.

He said that if Rafah is invaded, the results would be really bad.

The leader of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, has promised to beat the Hamas fighters who he says are hiding in the city.

In a very strong statement, Mr. Griffiths said that over a million people are crowded in Rafah and are facing the threat of death. He said people in the city don’t have much food or medicine and have no safe place to go.

He said if Israel invades the city, it will make the humanitarian operation even more difficult.

A person who speaks for the leader of the United Nations said to the BBC that the UN has not gotten any plans from Israel to move people out of Rafah, and the UN won’t help with any evacuations that are not voluntary.

Stephane Dujarric said: “The United Nations will not be part of making people leave their homes without wanting to. ”

Rafah is a little town in the southern part of the Gaza Strip near the border with Egypt. Before the war, about 250,000 people lived there. But now, because Israel told people to go south, the population has grown to around 1. 5

A lot of people are living in tents and they are in bad conditions. They have no place to go.

Mr Griffiths also said that people helping others in Gaza have been shot, threatened with guns, attacked, and killed because there is no law and order.

He said this while Israel and Hamas in Gaza were trying to talk and agree to stop fighting.

Top leaders from the US, Israel, Egypt, and Qatar met on Tuesday. They discussed the situation in Rafah and urged Israel not to invade.

Mr Guterres said he wanted the talks to be successful in order to prevent an attack by Israel on the city.

But later statements from the Egyptian government said that there was no progress made in the meeting.

It was said that the meeting showed how dangerous it is to increase military actions in Rafah in southern Gaza and how it could lead to very bad results. But they didn’t say if they made any progress towards peace.

Joe Biden, the President of the United States, told Israel to make sure that the people who are not in the army are safe. UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron told Israel to “stop and think carefully” before attacking Rafah.

Around 1,200 people died in attacks in Israel by gunmen led by Hamas on October 7th last year.

Israel started a war in the Gaza Strip. The war has caused the death of over 28,400 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and more than 68,000 have been injured, according to the health ministry run by Hamas.

Rafah was heavily bombed by the Israeli military recently. At least 67 people were killed there on Monday, according to the health ministry run by Hamas.