Israel brazenly carried out a massive invasion of eastern Rafah, despite global concern for the fate of the estimated 1.5 million Palestinian civilians who were unwillingly trapped in this southernmost city in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said its tanks had entered the Rafah crossing, which links the besieged Palestinian territory to Egypt, from the Gaza side and taken “operational control” of the vital border crossing. Israel claims that the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas allegedly used the crossing to attack the Israeli military. Specifically, an Israeli military spokesman said that Hamas militants fired mortars near the crossing, killing four soldiers at the Karem Abu Salem crossing, known to the Israelis as Kerem Shalom. However, the Israelis have failed to provide any hard evidence beyond verbal claims.

Israel has ordered some 100,000 Palestinians in the eastern neighbourhoods of Rafah to evacuate to the “extended humanitarian zone” in Khan Yunis and Al-Mawasi. Most of the people now in Rafah have sought refuge there from Israeli offensives elsewhere in the Gaza Strip. Palestinians live there in inhumane conditions, without shelter, food or medicine. The closure of the crossing will undoubtedly worsen the humanitarian situation and spread various diseases.

Humanitarian aid deliveries have been halted due to the brutal closure of the crossing, three UN humanitarian aid agencies told Reuters. Israel, for example, has largely restricted the entry of essential supplies such as food and medicine into Gaza since the outbreak of war in the Strip. UN experts have said repeatedly that the Israeli regime is deliberately starving Gaza’s 2.3 million people in a bid to drastically limit the Strip’s population. On this occasion, the head of the UN World Food Programme painted a grim picture of the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Cindy McCain told NBC News that a “full-blown famine” has begun in northern Gaza. She added that the famine in Gaza is now spreading rapidly southwards, expanding its scope.

UN access denied

A spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the world organisation did not have access to the closed Rafah crossing. “We........

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