On 28 May, SOS Children’s Villages started an emergency relocation of children and adults from the village in Rafah due to a dramatically heightened security risk at the location of the Children´s Village. All 33 children residing at the location in Rafah arrived unharmed at an alternative location in central Gaza.
With the emergency-relocation, SOS Children´s Village Rafah ceases to be a humanitarian hub for the local community and IDPs in the city of Rafah.
“It is SOS Children’s Villages’ clear intention to re-establish the vital humanitarian support for the local population in the Gaza Strip as soon as possible,” says Ghada Hirzallah, the National Director of SOS Children´s Villages in Palestine.
The now displaced group includes children, supporting staff, former programme participants and their families. They have reached their provisional new locations, which are situated within the area designated as a “safe zone”. We note with extreme concern that previously designated humanitarian “safe zones” have been targets of deadly strikes. We therefore call on all parties to the war to protect civilians as is their duty according to international humanitarian law.
Most of the children and caregivers, who lived at SOS Children´s Village Rafah, were evacuated to the West Bank in March. It was possible due to cooperation of all sides of the conflict. These children are now relatively safe and have resumed their regular education.
We stay highly concerned about the safety and wellbeing of the displaced children and staff. Children are always the ones to suffer most in any war. Many of the children, who were at the SOS Children’s Village in Gaza have been displaced several times to escape the fighting.
We reiterate our call for an immediate end to the hostilities to ensure the safety of children, young people, and families in the city of Rafah and the rest of Gaza.
We call on all actors with the utmost urgency to treat and protect children affected by the conflict in accordance with international law. Every child has a right to a safe life. We will continue our work in Gaza and continue to support children and families in this life-threatening situation as best we can.
The new locations where children and caregivers were forced to relocate are humanitarian sites protected under international law. As such, parties to the conflict must not target those locations and under no circumstances use them for military purposes.