UNICEF warns 600,000 children face 'catastrophe' in Rafah

United Nations, United States:Some 600,000 children packed into Gaza s Rafah city face further catastrophe, UNICEF warned Monday, urging against the...

United Nations, United States: Some 600,000 children packed into Gaza's Rafah city face "further catastrophe," UNICEF warned Monday, urging against their forced relocation after Israel ordered an evacuation ahead of its long-threatened ground invasion.

"Given the high concentration of children in Rafah... UNICEF is warning of a further catastrophe for children, with military operations resulting in very high civilian casualties and the few remaining basic services and infrastructure they need to survive being totally destroyed," the United Nations children's agency said in a statement.

It said Gaza's youth were already "on the edge of survival," with many in Rafah -- where the agency said the population has soared to 1.2 million people, half of them children -- already displaced multiple times and with nowhere else to go.

"More than 200 days of war have taken an unimaginable toll on the lives of children," said UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell.

"Rafah is now a city of children, who have nowhere safe to go in Gaza," she said, warning that a large-scale military operation by Israel would bring "chaos and panic, and at a time where (children's) physical and mental states are already weakened."