After a closed-door meeting of the Security Council to discuss precisely the recent Israeli attacks on Rafah, the Algerian ambassador Amar Bendjama, the only Arab representative on this UN body, communicated his intention to journalists. 

"This afternoon, Algeria will distribute to the members of the Security Council a draft resolution on Rafah. The text will be short and decisive, to stop the killing in Rafah", explained the diplomat.

Bendjama did not specify when he expects to submit the draft resolution to a vote by the other 14 member states.

"We hope that this can be done as quickly as possible because there are lives at stake", commented Chinese ambassador Fu Cong, hoping for a vote this week.

"This is a question of life or death, a matter of emergency (...). I believe that the Security Council cannot simply talk, the Council has to act", also defended the French ambassador to the UN, Nicolas de Rivière.

Since the unprecedented attack by the Islamist group Hamas against Israel, on October 7, 2023, and the beginning of Israeli reprisals in the Gaza Strip, the Security Council has struggled to speak with one voice.

After two resolutions focused mainly on humanitarian aid, the UN body - whose resolutions are binding - finally demanded an "immediate ceasefire" at the end of March, an appeal that had been consecutively blocked by the United States, strong allies of Israel, who this time abstained.

Questioned about the draft of the Algerian text, US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said she was still waiting to see the proposal.

However, despite the resolutions already approved, Israel has refused to implement them.

The International Court of Justice also asked Israel last week to immediately cease military operations in Rafah, orders that the Israeli government did not comply with.

On the contrary, it reinforced its offensive, with the Israeli army committing one of the bloodiest massacres of this war last Sunday, with dozens of fatalities and hundreds of wounded in the bombing of a displaced persons camp.

The real number of victims still seems uncertain, with the director of communications of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) saying today that the Israeli airstrike on Sunday caused about 200 deaths, numbers higher than those advanced by the Gaza Ministry of Health.

"The consequences of Sunday's terrible attack are enormous. According to some international medical sources that our teams spoke to, at least 200 people were killed in that attack, including women and children", said Juliette Touma, explaining that the numbers were communicated to her this afternoon by the non-governmental organization Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP UK).

According to Juliette Touma, more than one million people have fled the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza, since Israel launched a military operation on May 6, with some having already been displaced several times since the beginning of the conflict.

The UNRWA representative stressed that heavy bombardments occurred again last night, including in the area north of Rafah, where the UN headquarters are located, as well as the UNRWA offices.

Most of her team was unable to get to work and were "packing to move", said Touma, in a video conference with journalists that Lusa followed, stressing that "people are absolutely terrified".

Juliette Touma also stated that just over 200 trucks with humanitarian aid have advanced to the enclave in the last three weeks, a scenario that she classified as "a drop in the ocean".

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