UNICEF warns 600,000 children face ‘catastrophe’ in Rafah

Some 600,000 children packed into Gaza’s Rafah city face “further catastrophe,” UNICEF warns, urging against their forced relocation after Israel ordered an evacuation ahead of its long-threatened ground invasion.

“Given the high concentration of children in Rafah… UNICEF is warning of a further catastrophe for children, with military operations resulting in very high civilian casualties and the few remaining basic services and infrastructure they need to survive being totally destroyed,” the United Nations children’s agency says in a statement.

It says Gaza’s youth are already “on the edge of survival,” with many in Rafah — where the agency says the population has soared to 1.2 million people, half of them children — already displaced multiple times and with nowhere else to go.

Israel has told civilians to evacuate west to the Mawasi area, providing a map delineating the location in its messages to the population.