Displaced Palestinians stand outside their tents in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on February 14, 2024. Photo by SAID KHATIB / AFP
Doha, Qatar: Palestinians are leaving Rafah due to relentless Israeli airstrikes in the city once described as a "safe zone". According to the UN humanitarian agency (OCHA), people leaving Rafah are heading towards places including Deir el-Balah and Nuseirat refugee camps.
Reports also indicate intensified attacks across the Gaza Strip, particularly in the central and southern parts of the besieged enclave.
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[10:30pm Doha Time] ‘Everyone is hungry in Gaza’— Many Palestinians are going days without food as Israeli assault pushes Gaza towards famine, said Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum reporting from Rafah. “People in the south of Gaza are depending completely on humanitarian supplies being delivered through Rafah.”
Joyce Ajlouny, the general secretary of the American Friends Service Committee, a Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning Quaker organisation working in Gaza since 1949, has told Al Jazeera that the starvation is at “just enormous and truly catastrophic” level in Gaza.
“Our staff are telling us that they are seeing people hungry. Everyone is hungry in Gaza today. That is just enormous and truly catastrophic and we’ve never seen anything like that before.”
[8:30pm Doha Time] Another Qatari aircraft has delivered 30 tonnes of aid, including food supplies, to support Palestinians in Gaza. Read more.
[8:15pm Doha Time] The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) has said that 84% of health facilities and 70% of civilian infrastructure are impacted by Israeli attacks. On X, UNRWA posted: "Shocking footage shows unimaginable destruction in Gaza city, including our health centre. 84% of health facilities have been affected by attacks. +70% of civilian infrastructure- including homes, hospitals & schools- have been destroyed or severely damaged. Nowhere is safe."
Destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip on February 15, 2024. (Photo by Jack Guez / AFP)
[2:55pm Doha Time] Israel’s bombing in Nuseirat camp kills 11
An intense bombardment on Nuseirat camp in the central part of the Gaza Strip has killed at least 11, reported Al Jazeera.
It added that four children were among the victims in one raid, which hit a residential building.
A separate air raid in the Wadi Gaza area killed one person and wounded several.
[10:27am Doha Time] Israeli forces open fire on Nasser Hospital after ordering evacuation
Nurse Mohammed al-Astal says the health facility in southern Khan Younis has been “besieged” for a month with no food or drinking water left.
“At night, tanks opened heavy fire on the hospital, and snipers on the roofs of buildings surrounding Nasser Hospital opened fire and killed three displaced people,” he said.
Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) has condemned the Israeli military’s order to evacuate thousands of patients, staff and displaced people from the hospital.
The medical charity said its staff are continuing to treat patients there “amid near impossible conditions”.
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[10am Doha Time] WHO hasn’t been able to reach Nasser Hospital in 2 weeks
The last time the World Health Organization was able to reach Nasser Hospital was on January 29, as the medical complex has been under an Israeli siege for more than a week now, says the UN agency’s Tarik Jasarevic.
More than 400 people remain trapped at the hospital as nearby roads have also been destroyed. Requests to go there have been denied as fighting intensifies with at least 10 people killed by Israeli forces at the medical centre in Khan Younis city, he said.
“All of this is alarming and we keep calling everyone to protect health facilities, to protect patients and health workers,” Jasarevic told Al Jazeera.
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[10am Doha Time] Canada, Australia, New Zealand say they are ‘gravely concerned’ about Rafah operation
The prime ministers of Canada, Australia and New Zealand have issued a joint statement saying a “humanitarian ceasefire is urgently needed” in Gaza and that they are “gravely concerned” about looming Israeli military operations in Rafah.
“A military operation into Rafah would be catastrophic. About 1.5 million Palestinians are taking refuge in the area, including many of our citizens and their families,” the statement reads.
“With the humanitarian situation in Gaza already dire, the impacts on Palestinian civilians from an expanded military operation would be devastating. We urge the Israeli government not to go down this path.”
The statement was cosigned by Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese, Justin Trudeau and Christopher Luxon.
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[9:30am Doha Time] Rafah urgently needs stabilisation centre for children with ‘severe malnutrition’: UN
The UN humanitarian agency OHCA says that there is now “an urgent need to establish a stabilisation centre in Rafah for treating children suffering from severe malnutrition” as the city experiences “rising food insecurity” and “limitations on the entry of aid”.
On Wednesday, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed the Israeli government is still blocking flour – a vital staple food for Palestinians – from entering the Gaza Strip.
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[9am Doha Time] People leaving Rafah are heading towards Deir el-Balah and Nuseirat refugee camp: UN
People are leaving Rafah because of air strikes, a threatened Israeli ground invasion but also because they are struggling to survive in the overcrowded city in southern Gaza, according to the latest update from the UN humanitarian agency (OCHA).
People leaving Rafah are moving towards places including Deir el-Balah and the Nuseirat refugee camp, OCHA added.
Earlier, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, who is in Rafah, said that air strikes in the Nuseirat refugee camp and Deir el-Balah showed that people are still in danger after leaving Rafah.
“We need to clearly understand that these are areas where Palestinians have recently been fleeing to as they are trying to get away from a potential military incursion in Rafah, where Israeli jets continue to pound the city,” Abu Azzoum said.
