Even though Hamas accepted a draft ceasefire agreement, Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead with an attack on the city. Israel has also taken control of the Rafah border crossing in Gaza.
The move falls short of Netanyahu’s threatened large-scale operation in Rafah, but Borrell described it as a ground offensive.
“The ground offensive against Rafah has started again, despite all requests from the international community (the United States, the member states of the European Union) and everyone is asking Netanyahu not to attack Rafah,” said the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. he said at a briefing on Tuesday.
“Despite these warnings and these requests, the attack began last night. I fear that this will again cause many casualties, civilian casualties, no matter what they say. There are 600,000 children in Gaza. “They will be pushed into so-called ‘safe zones’; there are no safe zones in Gaza.”
Borrell also described the lack of agreement on a ceasefire as “sad news” and added: “Hamas accepted, Israel rejected.”
UNICEF stressed on Tuesday that the children’s city of Rafah “must not be invaded” and urged the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza to continue.
“Our worst fear – the nightmare of Gazans – appears to be a reality. “A reality that those in power have the ability to prevent,” spokesman James Elder said at a U.N. news conference in Geneva.
Elder noted that all the warnings and all the “mind-blowing data” about the number of children and mothers killed and homes and hospitals destroyed are being ignored.
Highlighting that Rafah is a children’s city, as more than half of Gaza’s children live in Rafah, he stated: “The events of last weekend in Gaza – the continued killing of children, further attacks by the warring parties and now evacuation orders – expose once again how the parties to this conflict continue to completely ignore the lives and protection of children and civilians.”
“That has to change. In fact, this is the last chance for this to change,” she urged, adding: “Aid must flow. The hostages must be released. Rafah must not be invaded. And children should no longer be killed.”
He reiterated UNICEF’s call for a cessation of hostilities, saying: “For the children of Rafah, we need a ceasefire now.”
The Israeli military issued immediate evacuation orders early Monday for Palestinians in the eastern neighborhoods of Rafah and asked them to move to the town of al-Mawasi in southern Gaza.
Rafah is home to more than 1.5 million displaced Palestinians who have taken refuge from the war launched by Israel following the October 1 attacks. 7 Hamas attack that killed almost 1,200 people.
Since then, the Israeli onslaught has killed more than 34,700 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in addition to causing a humanitarian catastrophe.
Nearly seven months into the Israeli war, vast areas of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.
Israel is accused of genocide before the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January said it is “plausible” that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and ordered Tel Aviv to stop such acts and take steps to ensure humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians there.