A Palestinian girl sleeps as she waits with her mother to travel to Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, in the southern Gaza Strip May 18, 2018. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
CAIRO - 13 February 2024: The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday that Israel has not contacted the office about a plan to evacuate the Rafah area in the Gaza Strip, either unilaterally or jointly.
"Israeli officials have never contacted us officially," OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke said in a press statement on the planned attack on Rafah. "Apart from that, the United Nations does not participate in forced or involuntary evacuations. There is no plan at this time to facilitate the evacuation of civilians."
Laerke's statement comes amid reports that Israel is planning to launch a military offensive in Rafah, which is the last stronghold of Hamas in Gaza. The Israeli government has said that the offensive is necessary to stop rocket fire from Gaza into Israel.
However, the UN has warned that any forced evacuation of Rafah would be a violation of international law. Laerke said that there is no safe place in Gaza for Palestinians to go, and that any evacuation would only worsen the humanitarian crisis in the Strip.
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