Gaza: The European Council has expressed deep concern over the humanitarian situation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
“Recalling the need to implement the International Court of Justice (ICJ) order of 24 May 2024, the European Council expresses deep concern about the consequences on the civilian population of the ongoing ground operations in Rafah,” the council said in a statement.
“The European Council stresses the importance of respecting and implementing the orders of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which are legally binding,” said the statement, also welcoming Resolution 2735 adopted by the UN Security Council aiming to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza.
Mounds of trash rotting in the heat are piling up close to where displaced people are sheltering in Gaza, a UN official has said, raising fears about the further spread of disease, Al Jazeera reports.
Louise Wateridge, an aid worker with United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), said that a pile of waste weighing an estimated 100,000 tonnes was building up near people’s tents in central Gaza.
“It’s among the population and it’s building up without anywhere to go. It just keeps getting worse. And with the temperatures rising, it’s really adding misery to the living conditions here,” she told journalists via video link from Gaza.
Israel has refused repeated requests to allow UNRWA to empty the main landfill sites, she said, meaning temporary ones are emerging, she added.
Even if permission is granted, Wateridge said UNRWA’s humanitarian missions such as trash collection have all but halted due to Israeli refusals to allow fuel imports.
At least seven bodies have been recovered since the morning in Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood following the Israeli bombing, an Al Jazeera correspondent has reported.
They added that two Palestinians were killed and five others were wounded when Israeli bombing targeted Palestinians near the Shujayea market.