2024-02-13 14:04:00
Displaced Palestinians tell Reuters they are fleeing Rafah towards Al-Maghazi and Khan Younis
Buildings and roads destroyed after the Israel Defense Forces withdrew from Khan Younis areas on February 2, 2024. (Credit: Abdulqader Sabbah/Anadolu/Getty Images)
Two displaced Palestinians told Reuters they are fleeing Rafah and heading to Al-Maghazi in central Gaza and Khan Younis in southern Gaza, just north of Rafah.
More than 1.3 million people — more than half of Gaza’s population — are believed to be in Rafah, where most of those displaced from other parts of the besieged enclave are crowded into the city near the border. Egyptian.
Displaced Palestinian Nahla Jarwan told Reuters on Tuesday that she had initially fled from Al Maghazi to Rafah, but is now returning to Al Maghazi.
“The last night in Rafah was very hard. We return to Al Maghazi out of fear, we are displaced from one area to another,” he said, adding that he hopes Al Maghazi will be safe.
“Wherever we go, there is no security. Not in Al Maghazi, not in Rafah, not anywhere,” he said.
“We are tired of fleeing from one city to another… People are tired,” he added.
“I hope the world is with us and looks at us with kind and merciful eyes… We are always crying. Martyrs, bombings, destruction, death, hunger, thirst, there is no food,” he added.
Another displaced Palestinian, Mo’men Shbair, told Reuters on Tuesday that he prays that the world will pressure Israel to end the war and “free us.”
“We’re lost. We don’t know where to go… We’re tired. We’ve been wandering around not knowing where to go,” he said.
Mo’men said he was in Khan Younis until he was told to head to Rafah. “Rafah is safe,” he said he was told.
“It was a hard night in Rafah and we return to Khan Younis. We are tired (of going) from one place to another,” he said.
Palestinians in Rafah are trying to figure out their next move as alarm grows over Israel’s planned ground offensive in the southern city.
On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the country’s armed forces to plan the “evacuation of the population” of Rafah ahead of a planned ground attack on the southern city, his office said in a statement.
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, told CNN on Tuesday that the Israeli military has not yet presented its plan to the government for the evacuation of Rafah, but said the army aims create a plan that evacuates civilians “out of harm’s way” and differentiates civilians from Hamas militants.
On Monday, IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said that “there was… a surge of Israeli Air Force strikes” on Rafah “to allow” Israeli forces to rescue two hostages held captive since the Sept. 7 attack. October, “and to hit the Hamas terrorists in the area.”
Following the Israeli airstrikes on Rafah, the Palestinian Red Crescent reported that more than 100 people had been killed in the attacks.
Two Al Jazeera journalists were also injured on Tuesday during an Israeli airstrike north of Rafah, Al Jazeera reported.
With reporting by Cat Nicholls and Alex Stambaugh
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