UN warns attack on Rafah could lead to ‘slaughter’

A top UN official has warned an Israeli assault on Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, could lead to a “slaughter”.
Humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said Palestinians in Gaza were already suffering an “assault that is unparalleled in its intensity, brutality and scope stressing that the consequences of an invasion of Rafah would be “catastrophic”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to defeat Hamas gunmen he says are hiding in the city.
In an unusually strongly worded statement, Griffiths said over a million people were “crammed in Rafah, staring death in the face” and civilians in the city had little food or access to medicine and “nowhere safe to go”.
An Israeli invasion of the city, he added, would “leave an already fragile humanitarian operation at death’s door”.