UN Humanitarian Office Says Rafah, Kerem Shalom Aid Crossings Into Gaza Cut Off

As the Gaza Strip faces famine conditions due to a months-long Israeli offensive, the UN humanitarian office on Tuesday said that both the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings into Gaza have been closed to goods and people, cutting off vital lifelines.

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

Laerke stressed that the seizure of the Rafah crossing also means that getting fuel into the Gaza Strip – needed for electricity, including for many medical services – will not be possible.

"Only one day of fuel" is available for the whole operation in Gaza, he said.

Asked by Anadolu at what level relocated supplies could meet the needs of people in the move, he said he could not give a certain answer to that.

"The aid is pretty much distributed immediately because of the needs ... We don't have the luxury of having huge warehouses," he said, adding that relocated supplies have various levels of availability.

Some 1.5 million people have sought refuge in the overcrowded city of Rafah, driven to seek safety there from months of Israeli attacks throughout the Gaza Strip.

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

After Palestinian Hamas group announced late Monday that it had accepted a Qatari-Egyptian proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza, Israel's War Cabinet nonetheless 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.

The displaced Palestinians have taken refuge in Rafah due to the war launched by Israel following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 1,200 people.

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

Seven months into the Israeli war, vast tracts 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 also 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. -