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Guterres: Israeli Offensive on Rafah Could Worsen ‘Humanitarian Nightmare’

UN chief Antonio Guterres. Reuters
UN chief Antonio Guterres. Reuters
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Guterres: Israeli Offensive on Rafah Could Worsen ‘Humanitarian Nightmare’

UN chief Antonio Guterres. Reuters
UN chief Antonio Guterres. Reuters

An Israeli offensive on the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip “would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare,” warned UN chief Antonio Guterres on Thursday.

“Half of Gaza’s population is now crammed into Rafah with nowhere to go,” Guterres said on X.

“Reports that the Israeli military intends to focus next on Rafah are alarming. Such an action would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences,” he added.

More than half of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million people have fled to Rafah, heeding Israeli evacuation orders ahead of the military’s expanding ground offensive. Evacuation orders now cover two-thirds of the tiny besieged enclave.

Even in areas of refuge, such as Rafah, Israel routinely launches air strikes against what it says are Hamas targets.

Israeli ground forces are still focusing on the city of Khan Younis, just north of Rafah, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly warned this week that Rafah would be next, creating panic among hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

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Lebanon PM Issues Rare Rebuke to Iran over 'Interference'

This handout picture provided by the Lebanese Prime Minister's press office shows Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati delivering a statement to the press in Beirut on October 11, 2024. (Photo by Lebanese Prime Minister's Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture provided by the Lebanese Prime Minister's press office shows Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati delivering a statement to the press in Beirut on October 11, 2024. (Photo by Lebanese Prime Minister's Press Office / AFP)
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Lebanon PM Issues Rare Rebuke to Iran over 'Interference'

This handout picture provided by the Lebanese Prime Minister's press office shows Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati delivering a statement to the press in Beirut on October 11, 2024. (Photo by Lebanese Prime Minister's Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture provided by the Lebanese Prime Minister's press office shows Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati delivering a statement to the press in Beirut on October 11, 2024. (Photo by Lebanese Prime Minister's Press Office / AFP)

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister on Friday made a rare rebuke to Iran and said Tehran's envoy should be summoned over reported comments by a top Iranian official that it would be ready to help "negotiate" to implement a UN resolution on Lebanon.

Criticism of Iran by top Lebanese officials is unusual, particularly given Tehran's sponsorship of Hezbollah, which is currently locked in battles against Israeli troops along Lebanon's southern border.

In an interview published in France's Le Figaro on Thursday, Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf was quoted as saying his country would be ready to "negotiate" with France to implement United Nations Resolution 1701.

That resolution, which ended the last round of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, calls for southern Lebanon to be free of any troops or weapons other than those of the Lebanese state.

Lebanese PM Najib Mikati said on Friday that he was "surprised" by the comments, calling them "a blatant interference in Lebanese affairs and an attempt to establish a rejected guardianship over Lebanon.”

Mikati said such a negotiation was the prerogative of the Lebanese state, and asked Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib to summon the Chargé d'Affaires of the Iranian embassy in Beirut over Ghalibaf's comments.