UN Humanitarian Office Says Both Rafah, Kerem Shalom Crossings Closed For Goods, People

The UN humanitarian office on Tuesday said that both the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings are closed for goods and people.

"Two main arteries for getting aid into Gaza are chopped off," Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told a UN briefing in Geneva.

The Israeli army early on Tuesday said that its forces have seized control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

Following the Palestinian Hamas group announcement of accepting a Qatari-Egyptian proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza, Israel's war cabinet decided to push ahead with an operation in Rafah.

The Israeli army issued immediate evacuation orders early Monday for Palestinians in the eastern neighborhoods of Rafah and called on them to move to the town of al-Mawasi in southern Gaza.

Rafah is home to more than 1.5 million displaced Palestinians who have taken refuge from the war launched by Israel following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that killed nearly 1,200 people.

Since then, the Israeli onslaught has killed more than 34,700 Palestinians, mostly women and children, besides causing a humanitarian catastrophe.

Nearly seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave's population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and ordered Tel Aviv to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians there. -