By Palestine Chronicle Staff 
EU Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell reiterated on Saturday his call on Israel to halt a military invasion of the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
“The EU asks Israel not to take military action in Rafah that would worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian situation,” Borrell wrote on X, sharing the link to one of his previous statements.
He stressed that all civilians must be protected in line with international humanitarian law, and called for Israel to respect the International Court of Justice’s order issued last month.
The EU asks Israel not to take military action in Rafah that would worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian situation. All civilians must be protected in line w/ IHL and @CIJ_ICJ order respected.
We call again on Hamas for the immediate & unconditional release of all hostages https://t.co/LcHh6dI7Rf— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) February 17, 2024
“We call again on Hamas for the immediate & unconditional release of all hostages,” Borrell also wrote.
Nearly 1.4 million Palestinians are now displaced in Rafah, seeking refuge from a genocidal war that has destroyed over 70 percent of the Strip’s civilian infrastructure, according to the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA.
Israel’s reported plans for an offensive on the city have sounded international alarm bells, with many countries urging restraint or an outright cancellation.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 28,858 Palestinians have been killed, and 68,677 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
(PC, AA)
