PHILIPPE Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, has accused Israel of engineering the “most cruel and Machiavellian scheme to kill” in Gaza, which has become “the graveyard of children and starving people”.
The UN’s World Food Programme says that as Israeli attacks intensify, hunger in Gaza is “worse than ever”, with 90,000 children needing urgent treatment from malnutrition.
Meanwhile, as reported, the Israeli army plans to concentrate a vast percentage of Gaza’s population into a camp in south Gaza’s Rafah, from which they would not be able to leave.
The plan is part of Israel’s proposed ceasefire deal with Hamas. Defence Minister Israel Katz says construction of the concentration zone would begin during the implementation of the agreement.
Several Palestinians told Al Jazeera that they would rather die where they were than bow to Israel’s plans.
“This is a crime; it is a sin. We’d rather die here than head to the south,” one man told our team on the ground.
“We will not head to Rafah, even if we all die here. We’re tired of displacement,” said another.
Israel’s plan has drawn international condemnation, including from the United Nations.
Several people, including children, have been killed in an Israeli bombardment of the Halimah al-Saadiyah School in Jabalia an-Nazla, in northern Gaza.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 57,762 people and wounded 137,656, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023, attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive.
