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full screen Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide. Photo: Rune Stoltz Bertinussen/NTB/TT
Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide says he fears a bloodbath as Israeli forces advance on the border town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
– If you now also advance there, where relatively speaking there have been fewer battles than further north, I frankly fear a bloodbath, says Barth Eide, who represents the social democratic Labor Party, in an interview with Norwegian NRK.
– We and many other countries, such as Germany, warn Israel against doing this.
Attacks on Rafah have escalated over the weekend. Over a million Palestinian internally displaced persons have sought refuge in the city, which has become a last stop for civilians fleeing Israeli attacks.
Barth Eide describes the situation in the Gaza Strip as a “humanitarian crisis beyond almost all proportions”, and points to the large number of casualties and the lack of food and medicine.