Save the Children warned that “Time has run out to protect children in Rafah with the looming ground assault forcing hundreds of thousands to flee and impeding aid efforts in Gaza’s last refuge.”

The organisation stated, “We hoped this day would never come. For weeks, we have been warning there is no feasible evacuation plan to lawfully displace and protect civilians,” adding, “For weeks, we have been warning of the devastating consequences this will have for children and our ability to assist them in an already straight-jacketed response.”

The organisation explained in a statement that for weeks, it had been calling for preventive action, but “instead, the international community has looked away. They cannot look away now.”

Israeli forces issued orders on May 6th demanding civilians in eastern Rafah to move to what Israel considers a newly expanded “humanitarian zone” in areas that the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) emphasised “are not entirely suitable for living.” The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights clarified that the orders to relocate civilians could amount to war crimes, stressing their inhumanity and the threat they pose to further danger and misery for the population.

In this context, Save the Children affirmed that “the announced incursion will not only risk the lives of over 600,000 children but will at best disrupt, and, at worst cause the collapse of the humanitarian aid response currently struggling to keep Gaza’s population alive, especially with aid concentrated in Rafah.

The organisation stated, “We had already run out of words to describe how catastrophic the situation is in Rafah, but the next chapter will take it to indescribable new levels.” 

Save the Children had been warning for months that the consequences of the Israeli military’s expansion into Rafah “will surpass our worst nightmares,” confirming the impossibility of protecting civilians due to population density.