We are deeply concerned by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s stated plan to launch a ground offensive in Rafah. An estimated 1.3 million forcibly displaced Palestinians are currently sheltering in Rafah, a city built to host 300,000. Even in the absence of further military escalation, overcrowded conditions, the near total collapse of sanitation infrastructure, the spread of disease, and a dire scarcity of food, water, and medicine in Rafah, could kill thousands more by August.

In a recent call with Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Biden stressed that a military operation in Rafah “should not proceed without a credible and executable plan” for protecting those sheltering there, and senior administration officials continue to discuss it with their Israeli counterparts.

NP, Sieg ohne Krieg, and 46 other humanitarian, human rights, and foreign policy concerned organizations, want to be clear that no such credible humanitarian plan is feasible in the current crisis. An Israeli military operation into Rafah would profoundly exacerbate the already catastrophic levels of need and the humanitarian emergency for millions of civilians with nowhere left to go.

Read or download the full letter to the Biden Administration below: