Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday ordered the military to come up with a plan to expel people from the city of Rafah in Gaza, as Israel prepares a new military offensive the US has warned could spell “disaster” for civilians already living under desperate conditions.
Rafah is one of the few remaining places in Gaza that has not already been extensively bombed. The city had a pre-war population of about 280,000 but now hosts another 1.4 million who fled fighting elsewhere in the territory, according to the UN.
After destroying Hamas strongholds across much of the rest of the Gaza Strip, Israel now wants to move on Rafah, where it says battalions of militants remain and operate a network of smuggling tunnels bringing weapons and supplies in from neighbouring Egypt.
“It is impossible to achieve the goal of the war without eliminating Hamas, and by leaving four Hamas battalions in Rafah,” Mr Netanyahu's office said in a statement.
“On the contrary, it is clear that intense activity in Rafah requires that civilians evacuate the areas of combat.”
Mr Netanyahu therefore has ordered the Israeli military “and the security establishment to submit to the cabinet a combined plan for evacuating the population and destroying the battalions”, the statement added.
The US State Department has said any military operation in Rafah would be a “disaster” unless civilian safety is given due consideration.
“To conduct such an operation right now with no planning and little thought in an area where there is sheltering of one million people would be a disaster,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said on Thursday.
The alarm was echoed on Friday by the UN and EU.
“There is a sense of growing anxiety, growing panic in Rafah because basically people have no idea where to go,” said Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA.
Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was “extremely worried about the fate of civilians in Rafah”.
“What is clear is that people need to be protected, but we also do not want to see any forced displacement – forced mass displacement – of people,” Mr Dujarric said.
The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borell meanwhile warned of a dire outcome for any military assault on Rafah.
“It would have catastrophic consequences worsening the already dire humanitarian situation and the unbearable civilian toll,” he said on X.
Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli army reservist who recently completed a tour as a senior international spokesman for the Israel Defence Forces, acknowledged that “tremendous suffering” was possible.
“But at the end of the day, there are things that need to be done in war to defeat an enemy,” Lt Col Conricus told The National at a think tank panel in Washington.
“Israel cannot defeat Hamas without taking out the tunnels in Rafah.”
Israeli forces have shifted their offensive south towards Rafah after initially storming northern Gaza in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas gunmen who rule the coastal strip.
Doctors and aid workers in Rafah are struggling to provide even basic aid to those sheltering there, many of them penned up against the border fence with Egypt and living in tents.
“No war can be allowed in a gigantic refugee camp,” said Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, warning of a “bloodbath” if Israeli operations expand there.
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No more lice
Defining head lice
Pediculus humanus capitis are tiny wingless insects that feed on blood from the human scalp. The adult head louse is up to 3mm long, has six legs, and is tan to greyish-white in colour. The female lives up to four weeks and, once mature, can lay up to 10 eggs per day. These tiny nits firmly attach to the base of the hair shaft, get incubated by body heat and hatch in eight days or so.
Identifying lice
Lice can be identified by itching or a tickling sensation of something moving within the hair. One can confirm that a person has lice by looking closely through the hair and scalp for nits, nymphs or lice. Head lice are most frequently located behind the ears and near the neckline.
Treating lice at home
Head lice must be treated as soon as they are spotted. Start by checking everyone in the family for them, then follow these steps. Remove and wash all clothing and bedding with hot water. Apply medicine according to the label instructions. If some live lice are still found eight to 12 hours after treatment, but are moving more slowly than before, do not re-treat. Comb dead and remaining live lice out of the hair using a fine-toothed comb.
After the initial treatment, check for, comb and remove nits and lice from hair every two to three days. Soak combs and brushes in hot water for 10 minutes.Vacuum the floor and furniture, particularly where the infested person sat or lay.
Courtesy Dr Vishal Rajmal Mehta, specialist paediatrics, RAK Hospital
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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