Israel’s military operation in Rafah could lead to a bloodbath’: WHO chief

Geneva:

An Israeli military incursion into the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza, could lead to a “bloodbath”, the World Health Organization warned on Friday, when announcing contingency plans.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to crush the remaining Hamas fighters in Rafah, where much of Gaza’s population has sought refuge after nearly seven months of war.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned of possible dire implications for the 1.2 million people sheltering in Rafah.

“The WHO is deeply concerned that a large-scale military operation in Rafah, Gaza, could lead to a bloodbath and further weaken an already broken health system,” Tedros said on X, formerly Twitter.

In a statement, the WHO announced contingency efforts but warned that “the broken health system would not be able to deal with the increase in casualties and deaths that an incursion into Rafah would cause.”

“This contingency plan is Band-Aids,” Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the Palestinian territories, told journalists in Geneva. “This will in no way prevent the expected substantial additional mortality and morbidity caused by a military operation.”

According to the WHO, most of the health facilities in the besieged territory were damaged or destroyed during heavy Israeli shelling.

Only 12 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals and 22 of 88 primary health facilities are “partially functional”, the UN health agency said.

“As part of contingency efforts, WHO and partners are working urgently to restore and resuscitate health services,” the statement said.

He added that Rafah’s three currently operational hospitals would become inaccessible “when hostilities intensify in their vicinity.”

Instead, the WHO is working to restore southern Gaza’s largest hospital, the Nasser Medical Complex in nearby Khan Yunis, and establish additional medical facilities.

“The struggling healthcare system will not be able to withstand the potential scale of devastation the incursion will cause,” Peeperkorn said.

A military operation in Rafah could trigger a new wave of displacement, leading to more overcrowding, limited access to food, water and sanitation and more disease outbreaks, he added.

In its statement, the WHO called “for an immediate and lasting ceasefire and the removal of obstacles to the provision of urgent humanitarian assistance in and through Gaza on the necessary scale”.

Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, said a military operation in Rafah “could lead to a massacre”.

“For agencies already struggling to provide humanitarian aid in Gaza, a ground invasion would be a disastrous blow,” he told journalists.

“Any ground operation would mean more suffering and death.”

The bloodiest war ever in Gaza began after an unprecedented attack on southern Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas on October 7, 2023.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count of official Israeli data.

The agents also took around 250 hostages, of whom Israel estimates that 128 remain in Gaza. The army says 35 of them are dead.

Israel’s relentless retaliatory military offensive has killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza – most of them women and children – according to the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-controlled territory.

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