GENEVA, February 14./TASS/. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned about the dire consequences of intensified hostilities in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, where scores of domestically displaced persons have fled from other areas of the Gaza Strip engulfed in fighting.
"Countless lives are hanging in the balance," Fabrizio Carboni, the ICRC’s regional director for the Near and Middle East said in a statement circulated in Geneva, stressing that the parties to the conflict should take measures to preserve these lives.
"In view of a military operation in densely populated Rafah, we renew our call on the parties to the conflict, and all who have influence on them, to spare and protect civilian lives and infrastructure," he said.
"Under international humanitarian law, parties to the conflict must ensure the basic necessities of life are provided and the necessary safeguards to preserve life are undertaken for the civilian population," Carboni reiterated.
With this in view, the ICRC warned the parties to the conflict and the international community "about the dire impact of increased and sustained armed hostilities in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip."
This is based on the premise that "a new phase of the conflict is unfolding, and it is critical that civilian lives are protected." "Even amidst the carnage and extreme polarization, the fundamental principle of humanity must be upheld," the statement stressed.
"Israel, as the occupying power, must ensure that the basic needs of the civilian population are met," the ICRC said. The statement stressed that "it is necessary — and only more urgent considering the humanitarian emergency and the escalating hostilities — that the trickle of aid being let into Gaza becomes a steady, robust stream."
On February 7, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had been ordered to prepare for the start of fighting in Rafah on the Gaza Strip’s southern border with Egypt. Two days later, he instructed the IDF to prepare a plan to evacuate civilians and eliminate the remaining four battalions of fighters from Palestinian radical movement Hamas in the city. On the night of February 12, Arab media outlets reported that the IDF had launched massive strikes on the city of Rafah. According to the latest data from Al Mayadeen television, at least 100 people were killed in the bombing and more than 230 were injured.