Un: Crisis Agency Suspends Rafah Operations Due to Shortage and Conflict

The UN halted food distribution in Rafah, Gaza due to supply shortages and ongoing Israeli military operations against Hamas, leaving 810,000 displaced. Medical facilities were also impacted amid the hostilities.

The United Nations has had to halt the distribution of food to families in the southern part of the Gaza Strip particularly Rafah city due to scarcity of food and increased insecurity which is a result of the intensified air strikes by the Israeli defense force against the Hamas group.

The UNRWA also said that it has been unable to deliver food and supplies in eastern Rafah because two of its distribution centers have been shut down due to the fighting.

“We lost two important facilities: our distribution center and a WFP warehouse as the Israeli army targeted Hamas in eastern Rafah,” the UNRWA spokesperson explained.

According to a survey conducted on July 23rd, there are over one million people in Rafah, and 810,000 have been displaced since the Israeli operation began on May 6th. This also came as UNRWA said its health centers in Rafah have not been supplied with medical items for ten days.

Meanwhile, in its move, the United States said none of the 569 metric tons of food and aid that reached Gaza through a newly constructed floating dock were ever delivered to the Palestinians by the aid organizations. On Saturday, several trucks were stopped by desperate crowds that were picking supplies from the pier and hence the WFP had to partially halt its supplies.

The situation has worsened with news that hospitals have been targeted and bombed. The chief of the World Health Organization said that the largest partially functional hospital in northern Gaza was hit four times on Tuesday by to conflict confrontation between the Israeli army and the Palestinian armed factions near Jabalia.

Israeli military officials stated that allegations of two missiles targeting and damaging the emergency section of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia that compelled the staff to bring out the patients to the open were being investigated.

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The WHO also said that al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia has been under siege since Sunday with dozens of staff, patients, and their families locked inside the hospital.