(25 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rafah, Gaza Strip – 25 May 2024
1. Various of people in the market
2. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Abdul-Nasser Hashem, Rafah resident:
"We want the operation to stop completely. We want a final cease-fire. We want life to return to normal because we are human beings. This is above the strength of humans. What is happening is sad. We are people living under occupation and it is our right to live like other people. The war was launched against us for eight months and even before the war started we had no capabilities to eat and drink. Today we are living below the poverty level. All Palestinian people are living below the poverty level. "
3. Various of people in the market
4. Vegetables on market stall
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Islam Abu Kamar, displaced from Gaza City:
"We have been waiting for this decision. We were hoping the war would end but it also eases the pressure if the military operation stops. There is a large number of displaced in Rafah, there are large numbers of people displaced from all parts of Gaza who are now in Rafah. We also hope that through this resolution that aid flows in, as now we are spending our money to buy stuff and regrettably people have no income. We are all displaced who left our jobs and our homes and we came to Rafah because we were told that it is a safe area."
6. Various of aid boxes
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hanaa Ahmad, displaced from Gaza City:
"God willing, the resolution will be implemented. We hope that the decision is implemented so that people can relax after this ongoing genocide. We don’t want it only in Rafah but in all parts of the Gaza Strip so that the crossings open and aid enters the region. Enough."
8. Various of people in the market
STORYLINE:
Residents of the Gaza Strip on Saturday welcomed the order from the United Nation’s top court for Israel to stop its military offensive on the southern city of Rafah.
Several people expressed hope it would lead to the end of Israel’s offensive and allow the flow of aid into the war-torn region.
"We want a final cease-fire. We want life to return to normal because we are human beings. This is above the strength of humans", said Rafah resident Abdul-Nasser Hashem.
"We don’t want it only in Rafah but in all parts of the Gaza Strip so that the crossings open and aid enters the region," said Hanaa Ahmad, a displaced Palestinian from Gaza city.
Egypt said Friday it has agreed to send United Nations humanitarian aid trucks through Israel’s main crossing into Gaza, but it was unclear if they will be able to enter the territory as fighting raged in the southern city of Rafah amid Israel’s escalating offensive there.
Gaza’s humanitarian crisis has spiralled as the U.N. and other aid agencies say the entry of food and other supplies to them has plunged dramatically since Israel’s Rafah offensive began more than two weeks ago. On Friday, the top U.N. court — the International Court of Justice — ordered Israel to halt the Rafah offensive, though Israel is unlikely to comply.
At the heart of the problem lie the two main crossings through which around 300 trucks of aid a day had been flowing into Gaza before the offensive began.
Israeli troops seized the Rafah crossing into Egypt, which has been inoperative since. The nearby Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza has remained open, and Israel says it has been sending hundreds of trucks a day into it.
Humanitarian groups are scrambling to get food to Palestinians as some 900,000 people flee Rafah, scattering across central and southern Gaza.
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