According to Al Jazeera, the Israeli bombs hit the town of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip the hardest last night. Also throughout the morning, Israeli warplanes dropped bombs on the city. Rafah is located on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. According to the state-run Palestinian news agency Wafa, at least 30 have been killed by Israeli bombs on Thursday. 21 must be injured. Pictures from the AFP news agency show that at least seven of the dead are children. A dead person is carried on a makeshift stretcher after Israeli airstrikes on the border town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. Photo: MOHAMMED ABED / AFP Families have already started holding funerals, writes Al Jazeera. The bombing takes place despite the fact that the Israeli authorities last Friday asked Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to flee to the south. The UN estimates that this applies to 1.1 million Palestinians. Humanitarian corridor Rafah is also the border town Egypt will use to bring in 20 trucks of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Israeli bombs are said to have caused extensive damage to the roads in the border town. These were to be used to transport the humanitarian aid. Here the trucks are ready to transport humanitarian aid from Egypt to southern Gaza. Photo: STRINGER / Reuters The damage means that the trucks cannot enter the Gaza Strip. US President Joe Biden says he has received signals that the roads will probably be in order on Friday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said yesterday that it will allow food, water and medicine to enter southern Gaza through the border crossing with Egypt, according to Reuters. At the same time, he says at a press conference with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday that the war will probably be prolonged. – These are our darkest moments. That means this is a long war, and we need your long-term support, says Netanyahu. – This is not just our fight. This is the fight for the entire civilized war, the fight for Israel, the fight for moderate Arab countries, the fight for a free world, the fight for the future, says Netanyahu. Forced displacement – The question for many in Gaza now is where to go. You can see that it is not safe to evacuate to the south either. This is what Kjersti Gravelsæter Berg, associate professor at NLA University College, says to news. She has the relationship between Israel and Palestine as one of her focus areas. Kjersti Gravelsæter Berg, who is an expert on refugees and migration in the Middle East, says the situation becomes extra serious when people now live even closer in southern Gaza. Photo: NLA University College – There has been no protection and no safe travel route for them south either. And they have no guarantees that they will be allowed to return. – That is why, for example, the International Red Cross has stated that there is a violation of international humanitarian law. It can be understood as a “forced displacement”, says Berg. Berg says that it is difficult to assess whether there are places in the Gaza Strip that are safer than others now, seen from the outside. She calls the situation dangerous, unclear and unpredictable. – Gaza is facing a humanitarian crisis, with a lack of clean water, food and medicine. A cloud of smoke rises over Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip after an Israeli bomb attack. Photo: SAID KHATIB / AFP The evacuation from north to south also means that the population density there will be even greater than it already is. – It is an enormously dangerous situation where many people can be affected at the same time, when people live so close together. This applies both in hospitals, in schools, in mosques and in other buildings where you can seek shelter, says Berg. – Civilians should not be bombed anyway – The civilian population in Gaza needs to be provided with basic services. It must be possible to do as long as the civilian population is not provided with these. That’s what Tobias Köhler, chief legal officer for international humanitarian law at the Red Cross, says to news. Tobias Köhler emphasizes that civilians should not be bombed regardless of where they are. – All countries must help so that this can pass unimpeded and safely, says Köhler. He emphasizes that he does not know the details of the attacks against Rafah, and therefore speaks on a general basis. – Civilians should not be bombed regardless of whether they are here or there. Whether you ask them to move or not, the attacking party must always consider the civilians. If you refuse or are physically unable to leave, the attacking party must take the presence of civilians into account anyway, says Köhler. Killed on escape route One of the main roads the Palestinians were asked to use in their escape from north to south, is Salah al-Deen. Nevertheless, several people were killed in Israeli attacks on this very road: On Friday, Israel orders that all Palestinians in the north of Gaza must evacuate within 24 hours. The order goes to all the 1.1 million who are north of the river Wadi. Hamas asks residents to ignore the order. Israel says Palestinians can evacuate via two main routes. One of them is the road Salah Al Deen. It extends through the entire Gaza Strip. From the North – It was here, along this road that the Palestinians were killed as they fled south for safety. The northern areas of the Gaza Strip have also been hit hard. According to the UN’s satellite agency, there is damage to around 15 percent of the building stock in northern Gaza as of 15 October. 927 buildings will be completely destroyed. 1216 buildings will have extensive damage, while 3121 buildings will have moderate damage.
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Told people to flee south – still bombs city in southern Gaza – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
