"If a large-scale ground operation is launched, children will not only be at risk from the violence, but also from the chaos and panic at a time when their physical and emotional well-being is already extremely fragile,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell in a statement. She described Rafah as “a city of children with nowhere safe to go.” “Hundreds of thousands of boys and girls are now crammed into Rafah, injured, sick, malnourished, traumatized or living with disabilities,” Russell said, calling for “protection” and basic services for Palestinian children. Before the war, about a quarter of a million people lived in Rafah, but the UN estimates that 1.2 million are now there, most displaced from other areas of the Palestinian enclave. Overcrowding is so severe that there are an estimated 20,000 people per square kilometer, more than double the density of New York City. The UN estimates that nearly 8,000 children under the age of two in Rafah are suffering from acute malnutrition, while an estimated 175,000 children under the age of five – nine out of ten – are suffering from at least one infectious disease. The Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Jan Egeland, meanwhile, fears that a large-scale offensive on Rafah could represent “the deadliest phase yet” of a conflict that has already claimed more than 3,400 lives, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza. Of those fatalities, more than 1,400 were children, according to the latest figures from the Palestinian ministry. Egeland said in a statement that evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military on Wednesday for Rafah were “beyond alarming” given the densely populated area and the lack of “safe passage, shelter or return guarantees” for those affected. The situation, he said, amounts to forced displacement. “Any Israeli military operation in Rafah, now the world’s most densely populated displacement camp, risks mass atrocities,” Egeland added. The NRC chief also criticized Israel’s international allies for failing to halt the offensive on Rafah after months of “failing to rein in indiscriminate attacks on Gaza.” He called on those allies to “assume their responsibilities” and work to ensure respect for international humanitarian law. The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said on Twitter on Wednesday that an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah would add “another layer to an already unbearable tragedy.” A ground offensive on Rafah “will make it even harder to reverse the descent into man-made famine,” Lazzarini warned. “What’s needed is a ceasefire now, not more forced displacement and the prospect of more endless suffering,” he added. Also Read: Number of Israeli soldiers killed in southern Gaza rises to four (in Portuguese)