U.N Special Rapporteur: Rafah is the last line of Palestinian existence in Gaza
People trapped in Rafah face “relentless anguish,” the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories has said, as she condemned the possibility of Palestinians sheltering in the southern city being evacuated into the Sinai desert.
Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese described the possibility of deportations into countries such as Egypt as “another Nakba,” and called the southern border city of Rafah “the last line of Palestinian existence in Gaza.”
The Nakba, Arabic “catastrophe” refers to the forced expulsion in 1948 of an estimated 700,000 Palestinians from the land that became the state of Israel.
Nasser Hospital is ‘not functional anymore,’ WHO warns
TEL AVIV — Nasser Hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis is “not functional anymore” amid ongoing raids at the facility, the World Health Organization has warned.
A WHO team was blocked yesterday and the day before from being able enter the hospital to assess the conditions of patients being treated at the facility, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X today. He said the team had visited the facility to deliver fuel alongside other partners, but were not allowed to enter.
Ghebreyesus said there were around 200 patients still inside the hospital, with at least 20 needing to be “urgently referred” to other hospitals to receive health care. “Medical referral is every patient’s right,” he said, adding: “The cost of delays will be paid by patients’ lives.”
The Israel Defense Forces launched their dayslong raid at the hospital on Thursday, saying intelligence indicated that Hamas had held hostages there. The IDF said around 100 people were detained, with the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza saying medical workers were among them.
The health ministry said at least five patients at the hospital had died due to a lack of oxygen and power outages during the raid….
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