GENEVA: An Israeli incursion in Rafah would put the lives of hundreds of thousands of Gazans at risk and be a huge blow to the aid operations of the entire enclave, the UN humanitarian office said on Friday, as the World Health Organization announced contingency plans for an incursion.
Israel has repeatedly warned of an operation against Hamas in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, where around a million displaced people are crowded together, having fled months of Israeli bombardments triggered by Hamas fighters' deadly cross-border attack on October 7.
"It could be a slaughter of civilians and an incredible blow to the humanitarian operation in the entire strip because it is run primarily out of Rafah," said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office (OCHA), at a Geneva press briefing.
Israel has said it will work to ensure the safe evacuation of civilians from Rafah.
Aid operations in Rafah include medical clinics, warehouses stocked with humanitarian supplies, food distribution points and 50 centres for acutely malnourished children, Laerke said.
Meanwhile, Turkiye said on Friday it will not resume trade with Israel, worth $7 billion a year, until a permanent ceasefire and humanitarian aid are secured in Gaza, becoming the first of Israel's key commercial partners to take such a step.
Israel's "uncompromising attitude" and the worsening situation in Gaza's Rafah region, a refuge for displaced people that Israel has threatened to storm - prompted Ankara to halt all exports and imports, Trade Minister Omer Bolat said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz criticised Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's move, enacted late on Thursday, saying it breaks international trade agreements and was "how a dictator behaves".
Hamas, which rules Gaza, praised the decision as brave and supportive of Palestinian rights.
It marks Ankara's strongest step after months of sharp criticism of Israel's military campaign, which has laid waste to the densely populated Palestinian enclave. Erdogan had faced growing domestic calls for more tangible action.
In US, President Joe Biden insisted on Thursday that "order must prevail" on college campuses after weeks of turmoil, clashes with police and mass arrests involving student protests against Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza.
Biden, who had remained tight-lipped as the student unrest expanded, spoke just hours after hundreds of police moved in to forcibly clear a sprawling encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles, tearing down barriers and detaining more than 200 protesters.
For weeks, authorities on campuses from New York to California have tried to thread the needle between the right to protest and complaints of violence and hate speech, resulting in more than 2,000 arrests in two weeks as university terms end.
"We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent," Biden, who has faced criticism from all sides of the political spectrum over the demonstrations, said in a televised statement from the White House.
"But neither are we a lawless country. We're a civil society, and order must prevail," he added.
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