Palestinians Cling to Life in Rafah, a Town Likely to Be Israel's Next Focus in the War on Hamas

Destroyed buildings stand along a rubble-strewn street, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in Gaza, in this still image taken from video released February 15, 2024. UNRWA/Handout via REUTERS
Destroyed buildings stand along a rubble-strewn street, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in Gaza, in this still image taken from video released February 15, 2024. UNRWA/Handout via REUTERS
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Palestinians Cling to Life in Rafah, a Town Likely to Be Israel's Next Focus in the War on Hamas

Destroyed buildings stand along a rubble-strewn street, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in Gaza, in this still image taken from video released February 15, 2024. UNRWA/Handout via REUTERS
Destroyed buildings stand along a rubble-strewn street, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in Gaza, in this still image taken from video released February 15, 2024. UNRWA/Handout via REUTERS

In the narrow crevices between the tents that crowd nearly every inch of the southern Gaza town of Rafah, Palestinians cling to life amid the grinding war with Israel.
A barefoot boy wears a pot on his head and beams a smile. A child lugs a jerry can half his size full of water. Men sit at half-empty tables selling canned goods. A tapestry of laundry hangs from every line, The Associated Press said.
The world’s gaze is on Rafah, the once-sleepy town along the Egyptian border that is likely Israel’s next focus in its fight against Hamas.
Rafah has swelled in size in recent weeks. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have splayed out across the town in tents or at the homes of friends or relatives. The estimated 1.5 million people sheltering there — more than half of Gaza’s population — have nowhere to flee in the face of an offensive that has leveled large swaths of the urban landscape in the rest of the territory.
UN officials warn that an attack on Rafah will be catastrophic, with more than 600,000 children in the path of an assault. A move on the town and surrounding area also could cause the collapse of the humanitarian aid system struggling to keep Gaza’s population alive. Israel’s Western allies have also expressed concern.
Israel says it must take Rafah to ensure Hamas’ destruction and to free hostages held by the group.
Food, like everywhere in the Gaza Strip, is scarce. Throngs of people crowd around a bakery, hoping for a few pitas to feed their families. Others bake their own in mud stoves with whatever flour they could get. One child, seated on an older child’s shoulders, reveled in the first bite of the fluffy bread.
The streets with no tents are packed with crowds of Palestinians hustling to sustain their families.
The mundane drumbeat of life continues in some places. A boy gets a haircut. A girl dons an oversized sheer pink floral dress. Women and a child avoid a large puddle near a mass of tents.
And in a surreal snapshot of joy, children spin around on a makeshift, manually operated Ferris wheel, turning and turning as the war — now in its fifth month — rolls on.



Aid to Gaza 'Facing Total Collapse', Warn 12 NGOs

 A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
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Aid to Gaza 'Facing Total Collapse', Warn 12 NGOs

 A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)

The humanitarian aid system in Gaza is "facing total collapse" because of Israel's blockade on aid supplies since March 2, the heads of 12 major aid organizations warned Thursday, urging Israel to let them "do our jobs".

Israel has vowed to maintain its blockage on humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged territory, saying it is the only way to force Hamas to release the 58 hostages still held there.

"Every single person in Gaza is relying on humanitarian aid to survive," the chief executives of 12 NGOs, including Oxfam and Save the Children, wrote in a joint statement.

"That lifeline has been completely cut off since a blockade on all aid supplies was imposed by Israeli authorities on March 2," they said, adding that "This is one of the worst humanitarian failures of our generation."

A survey of 43 international and Palestinian aid organizations working in Gaza found that almost all have suspended or drastically cut services since a ceasefire ended on March 18, "with widespread and indiscriminate bombing making it extremely dangerous to move around", the NGOs said.

"Famine is not just a risk, but likely rapidly unfolding in almost all parts of Gaza," they said. "Survival itself is now slipping out of reach and the humanitarian system is at breaking point."

"We call on all parties to guarantee the safety of our staff and to allow the safe, unfettered access of aid into and across Gaza through all entry points, and for world leaders to oppose further restrictions."

Israel's renewed assault has killed at least 1,691 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, bringing the overall toll since the war erupted to 51,065, most of them civilians.

Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.