Action Against Hunger remains in Rafah and warns that a ground offensive will cause more death and hunger in Gaza

Despite the latest announcements, Action Against Hunger, who’s been present in the Occupied Palestinian Territory for over 20 years, in Gaza since 2005 and working non-stop in the conflict response for the last seven months, will maintain its presence in Rafah and continue working to provide humanitarian aid to populations across the Gaza strip, as well as to ensure the safety of our staff.

“Following the evacuation order issued this morning, Action Against Hunger fears that a possible ground offensive in Rafah will result in thousands of deaths, while greatly increasing the risk, yet again, of forcible transfer of over one million Palestinians, and greatly prevent life-saving aid from reaching the most vulnerable in Gaza. People there are already facing starvation, disease, and trauma.  If there is an offensive, the consequences will be catastrophic, when we are barely managing to structure the little aid that reaches the Strip”, says Natalia Anguera, Action Against Hunger’s Head of Operations for the Middle East.

So far, around 100,000 people in the eastern part of Rafah have received orders to evacuate, including several Action Against Hunger staff.  We are doing everything in our power to support them in this extremely dire situation and we have already prepared an alternative refuge for our staff and their families in a safer zone so they so that they can continue their tireless commitment to the victims.

One of Action Against Hunger’s emergency team members, who recently returned from two deployments to Gaza, explained that over a million people in Rafah have "already lost everything: their houses, their savings, everything they built in the last decades. Everything is destroyed, all the health centres, schools, and public services. "

"There are a lot of people crowded together in places where you’re not meant to live, basically on a desert, without means of subsistence, where you can’t grow crops, there’s no irrigation or safe drinking water. I think of our colleagues and other people who have already displaced multiple times to get to Rafah and will have to grab their children, carry them, and walk again. There are no more safe areas to go to.”

Despite continuous global warnings from the international community about the catastrophic impact of a ground offensive in Rafah, the recent evacuation order will also greatly hinder the ability of humanitarian organizations to respond to the basic needs of the population. We call on all actors to do everything in their power to guarantee safe and unobstructed humanitarian access. Without it, we will witness catastrophic consequences not yet seen across the last seven months.

Action Against Hunger urgently recalls the need for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, an immediate release of hostages, safe, effective, and unimpeded humanitarian access and the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure as the only way to prevent further catastrophe.