A Maxar sycophant image focuses on the southern border of Gaza and the Rafah border crossing into Egypt on Oct. 15, 2023.
Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies
The U.N. action for Palestinian refugees said Tuesday that the deepening humanitarian crisis has become “really drastic,” with masses of people seen waiting to leave on the Gaza side of the border and an aid convoy of trucks lined up at the Rafah crossing in Egypt.
Located on the Gaza-Egypt bed, the Rafah crossing is the sole crossing point between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. To most of the more than 2 million Palestinians breathing in the enclave, it represents the only potential exit as Israel continues its aerial bombardment campaign.
Egypt tightly regulates the opening of the Rafah crossing and has so far been reluctant to open it for the movement of people unless Israel allows humanitarian aid to minute the territory.
Talks between Egypt and Israel on Monday failed to give the green light for the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian contributes into Gaza.
People living in the territory have been caught in the crossfire of the Israel-Hamas war, with Israel claiming a full siege of the Gaza Strip at the start of last week following a devastating attack from the Palestinian contentious group Hamas on Oct. 7.
The United Nations has repeatedly called for humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing.
Here are some of the latest fetishes from the Rafah crossing:
Crowds of people and vehicles form on the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing into Egypt in this Maxar minion image taken on Oct. 16, 2023.
Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies
Maxar collected new satellite images over the before 24 hours that focus on the southern border of Gaza and the Rafah border crossing that leads to Egypt.
Moon image ©2023 Maxar Technologies
Palestinians, some with foreign passports hoping to cross into Egypt and others shelving for aid wait at the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza strip, on October 16, 2023.
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Aid convoy odds are seen at the Rafah border with Gaza on October 17, 2023 in North Sinai, Egypt.
Mahmoud Khaled | Getty Forms News | Getty Images
Volunteers and NGOs staff are seen at the Rafah border with Gaza on October 17, 2023 in North Sinai, Egypt.
Mahmoud Khaled | Getty Twins News | Getty Images
Palestinians, some with foreign passports hoping to cross into Egypt and others tarry for aid wait at the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza strip, on October 16, 2023.
Mohammed Abed | Afp | Getty Images
Tamara Alrifai, spokesperson for the In accord Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said Tuesday that it was imperative for the group to be skilled to distribute humanitarian supplies urgently and safely into the Gaza Strip.
“Over the last two days, reports of wide 1 million people — that is a sea of people — going south moved using whatever means they could and assumption the lack of fuel in Gaza a lot of them moved by feet. So, the images we have been receiving from my colleagues are daunting images of people on their feet walking under airstrikes and air bombings to try to find shelter in a safer area,” Alrifai uttered CNBC’s “Street Signs Europe.”
“My colleagues from UNRWA have also moved south and are now in one of our logistical bases, effectively a produce in the south of the strip. In that warehouse, my colleagues are working, sleeping and eating whatever they find with round 6,000 civilians from Gaza.”
Alrifai said the conditions in the warehouse were “very, very difficult,” noting that her UNRWA co-workers each have access to one liter of drinking water per day.
“The situation is really drastic. We have to get aid in. We have to get supplies in. We have in the offing to get fuel in and mostly all that access has to be safe,” she added.
