As of Wednesday (May 8), negotiations are set to resume in Cairo following the breakdown of the previously agreed ceasefire by Hamas. Delegates from both Hamas and the Israeli side have arrived in the Egyptian capital for further discussions. At the same time, Israel persists in its airstrikes on Rafah and the Gaza Strip. The UN secretary-general cautioned that an Israeli assault on Rafah would represent ‘a strategic mistake, a political calamity, and a humanitarian nightmare’.
On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that health services in the southern Gaza Strip have fuel reserves to last only three days. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge in this area. The WHO noted that a fuel delivery to the region was denied on Wednesday.
“WHO has pre-positioned in some supplies in warehouses and hospitals, but without more aid flowing into Gaza, we cannot sustain our life saving support to hospitals,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. He emphasized that the WHO will continue to offer health services in the region.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote on X, “One million people cannot vanish into thin air. They need protection. They urgently need more humanitarian aid. To this end, the Rafah and Kerem Shalom border crossings must be reopened immediately.”
Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said on Wednesday that “Australia has been clear about our objections to a major Israeli ground offensive into Rafah, and we have reiterated this to Israel again today.”
“The impact on Palestinian civilians from an expanded military operation would be devastating,” she added.
Qatar also condemned “in the strongest terms the Israeli occupation forces’ bombardment of the Rafah governorate, invasion of the land crossing and threat to displace citizens from shelter and housing centres.”
In a post on X, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it “strongly condemns” both the Israeli military’s “control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing” and the “attack” on Rafah.
As reported by TASS, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov described the situation in Rafah as a “humanitarian disaster” on Tuesday.
A UNRWA official stated that “roughly 50,000 people” have left Rafah in the past 48 hours due to Israel’s evacuation order.
“We tracked roughly 50,000 people departing Rafah in the last 48 hours. We’ve seen them go to Khan Younis, some have gone to the expanded humanitarian area of Al-Mawasi, others have gone to Deir al-Balah,” the senior deputy director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza, Scott Anderson, told CNN.