Humanitarian organizations and United Nations officials are warning that the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children—nearly all of whom are sick, injured, or malnourished—are in grave danger as Israeli forces on Monday moved to forcibly evacuate the overcrowded Gaza city of Rafah ahead of an expected ground invasion.

An estimated 600,000 children are believed to be sheltering in Rafah in terrible conditions and under the near-constant threat of Israeli airstrikes, which rocked the city and killed dozens of people—including at least eight kids—hours before the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued its evacuation directives.

“They’re being told to move, quote unquote, to a ‘humanitarian zone.’ That’s a unilaterally declared humanitarian zone,” James Elder, a spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said in a BBC appearance Monday. “That’s not a humanitarian zone where humanitarians have been able to provide the services they need to. I’ve been talking to colleagues and friends in Rafah this morning, and they’re terrified.”

“Nowhere is safe,” said Elder. “But as unbearable as this is, it’s happening and it’s going to be horrific.”

"Its going to be horrific"

James Elder from UNICEF on Israel ordering people in Rafah to move.

When will our journalists start calling this what it is? pic.twitter.com/hYMQWyQss2

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) May 6, 2024

Threatening “extreme force” in the area, the Israeli military on Monday ordered roughly 100,000 people in the eastern part of Rafah to move west to Al-Mawasi, a town on Gaza’s southern coast. Humanitarian groups said Al-Mawasi doesn’t have anywhere near sufficient infrastructure to house displaced people from Rafah and stressed that nowhere in Gaza is safe as long as Israel continues its bombing campaign.

Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children International, said in response to the IDF’s directives that “for weeks we have been warning there is no feasible evacuation plan to lawfully displace and protect civilians.”

“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. For weeks, we have been calling for preventive action,” Ashing continued. “Instead, the international community has looked away. They cannot look away now.”

“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,” she added. “Forcibly displacing people from Rafah while further disrupting the aid response will likely seal the fate of many children. We had already run out of words to describe how catastrophic the situation is in Rafah—but this next chapter will take it to indescribable new levels.”

“History will judge all of those who are complicit in what is being done to Palestinians in Gaza. It must end now.”

Roughly 1.4 million people, many of them already displaced multiple times since October, are currently sheltering in Rafah, which Israel’s military has been threatening to invade for months amid faltering cease-fire talks with Hamas.

Reuters reported that in the wake of the IDF’s evacuation order, “some loaded children and possessions onto donkey carts, some packed into cars, others simply walked” in the hopes of escaping Israel’s ground assault.

“People have nowhere to go, no area is safe. All that remains in Gaza is death,” Mohammed Al-Najjar, a 23-year-old man with family in Rafah, told the news agency. “I wish I could erase these last seven months from my memory. So many of our dreams and hopes have faded.”

According to UNICEF, around 65,000 children in Rafah have a preexisting disability—including seeing, hearing, and walking difficulties—and nearly 80,000 are infants. Roughly 8,000 children under the age of two in Rafah are acutely malnourished.

“The ‘evacuation’ of Rafah is illegal,” said Heidi Matthews, an assistant professor of law at the Osgoode Hall Law School of York University. “There are no ‘humanitarian’ or ‘safe zones.’ Civilians are being forcibly displaced to areas totally unsuitable to human habitation. This is a crime against humanity.”

The Biden administration, which has supported Israel’s war on Gaza from the start, has expressed opposition to a Rafah ground invasion absent a credible plan to keep civilians out of harm’s way. On Monday, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said that “we continue to believe that a hostage deal is the best way to preserve the lives of the hostages, and avoid an invasion of Rafah, where more than a million people are sheltering.”

The spokesperson said U.S. President Joe Biden plans to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at some unspecified point on Monday.

Mike Merryman-Lotze, just peace global policy director at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), said in a statement Monday that “the Biden administration has spoken against the invasion of Rafah but continues to send billions of dollars in weapons to Israel for its genocidal campaign.”

“Any invasion will only bring countless more deaths and exacerbate the risk of famine that is already high because Israel continues to block most humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. President Biden and all elected officials must act now to stop this invasion, demand a permanent and complete cease-fire, and end all arms transfers to Israel.”

CNN reported Sunday that the Biden administration decided to pause a shipment of U.S.-made ammunition to Israel, but an unnamed official told the outlet that the hold was “not connected to a potential Israeli operation in Rafah and doesn’t affect other shipments moving forward.”

Medical Aid for Palestinians, an advocacy group based in the United Kingdom, said Monday that “the international community knows that this invasion will be a catastrophe.”

“The killing of civilians will accelerate and much more of Gaza’s remaining infrastructure will be destroyed,” the group said. “History will judge all of those who are complicit in what is being done to Palestinians in Gaza. It must end now.”

This post was originally published on The Real News Network.

World Central Kitchen said Tuesday that a targeted Israeli airstrike killed seven members of its aid team in Gaza as they left a warehouse in the city of Deir al-Balah, where they had just unloaded more than 100 tons of food set to be distributed to starving Palestinians.

The Washington, D.C.-based aid organization said the seven killed included a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada as well as Australian, Polish, and British nationals and one Palestinian staffer later identified as Saif Abu Taha.

“This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war,” Erin Gore, the group’s CEO, said in a statement. “This is unforgivable.”

WCK said its convoy of vehicles—including two armored cars branded with the group’s logo—was hit by an Israeli strike while traveling in what was supposed to be a deconflicted zone. The group said it coordinated the convoy’s movements with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), leading WCK to conclude that the attack was not an accident.

“I am heartbroken and appalled that we—World Central Kitchen and the world—lost beautiful lives today because of a targeted attack by the IDF,” Gore said Tuesday. “The love they had for feeding people, the determination they embodied to show that humanity rises above all, and the impact they made in countless lives will forever be remembered and cherished.”

Photographs and video footage from the scene and its aftermath show utter carnage. Rescue teams that arrived at the scene and removed the WCK staffers’ bodies from the wreckage displayed the passports of those killed, identifying Zomi Frankcom of Australia, Damian Sobol of Poland, and other victims of the Israeli strike.

The IDF pledged to carry out “an in-depth examination at the highest levels”—a promise that, given the Israeli military’s record, is likely to prove empty.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that the strike “unintentionally hit innocent people,” but Haaretz reported that the attack “was launched because of suspicion that a terrorist was traveling with the convoy”—an indication that the strike itself, targeting vehicles carrying aid workers, was intentional.

The Israeli military has repeatedly attacked aid workers with impunity in recent months, killing staffers of United Nations agencies, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent, Doctors Without Borders, and other organizations.

WCK is known for coordinating emergency food relief in disaster zones around the world. The group has collected and delivered hundreds of tons of food to Gaza in recent weeks as famine has spread across the enclave due to the Israeli government’s blockade.

Following the deadly attack on its staffers, WCK said it would pause its operations in the region immediately.

“We will be making decisions about the future of our work soon,” the group said in a statement.

Footage from March 26 by World Central Kitchen (WCK) shows aid workers discussing food preparation for Palestinian families in Deir al-Balah. They are believed to be among five aid workers killed in Sunday's Israeli air strikes in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/KEGadIDuQo

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) April 2, 2024

Celebrity chef José Andrés, the group’s founder, wrote in a social media post late Monday that he is “heartbroken and grieving for their families and friends and our whole WCK family.”

“These are people…angels…I served alongside in Ukraine, Gaza, Turkey, Morocco, Bahamas, Indonesia,” he wrote. “They are not faceless…they are not nameless. The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing. It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon. No more innocent lives lost. Peace starts with our shared humanity. It needs to start now.”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has been accused of abetting genocide in Gaza, confirmed that Australian citizen Zomi Frankcom was among those killed by the Israeli strike and demanded “full accountability.”

“This is a tragedy that should never have occurred,” Albanese told reporters, saying he had summoned the Israeli ambassador to Australia.

Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council, said the Biden White House is “heartbroken and deeply troubled by the strike.”

“Humanitarian aid workers must be protected as they deliver aid that is desperately needed, and we urge Israel to swiftly investigate what happened,” she added.

This post was originally published on The Real News Network.