The Israeli military operation in Rafah “could lead to a massacre in Gaza,” Martin Griffiths, the UN’s humanitarian chief, warned in a statement on Tuesday, AFP reported.

“I sound the alarm once again: military action in Rafah could lead to a massacre in Gaza. They can also lead to the death of already fragile humanitarian operations,” he said.

The UN will not be associated with the “forced evacuation” of the population from Rafah, the secretary-general’s spokesman warned on Monday, reiterating that there is “no safe place” in the Gaza Strip to move the population, AFP reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently ordered the army to prepare an offensive on the city in the southern Gaza Strip, where the United Nations says 1.4 million Palestinians have fled the four-month war between Israel and Hamas. Palestinian Islamist Movement October 7.

He said on Sunday that Israel would provide “safe passage” for the population to leave the city, without specifying where they could hide in the destroyed area.

The United States remains opposed to Israel’s large-scale military operation in Rafah in the absence of measures to protect civilians in the Palestinian town on the border with Egypt, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Monday.

“Without a credible plan for that, which they (Israel) are able to implement, we do not support a large-scale military operation” in Rafah, he told reporters.

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