After months of threats, Israel’s deadly invasion of Rafah has begun. The UK must do everything it can to stop the killing.
Over the past seven months, Israel’s air and ground attacks in Gaza have forced more than one million Palestinians to Rafah, a small city in the south.
Now, while bombardment continues in the north, Israel’s military assault and ground invasion in Rafah has intensified, risking thousands more civilian deaths and injuries, and the total collapse of the health system.
After telling Palestinians to flee to so-called ‘safe zones’ in western Rafah, and just days after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah, the Israeli military has targeted tents sheltering displaced families in these ‘safe zones’, killing dozens of people.
Israel’s closure of southern crossings has also strangled the limited aid channels into Gaza, just as the World Food Programme has concluded that famine has taken hold in northern Gaza and is working its way southwards.
This is the latest stage of a military onslaught that UN human rights experts and the ICJ have concluded may plausibly amount to genocide.
Demand that the UK suspends arms transfers to Israel to prevent their use in further atrocities in Rafah, and takes urgent action for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
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