2024-05-09 22:19:19
Image source, Reuters
Caption, Relatives of those who died in Rafah due to Israel’s attacks.Article information
- Author, Writing
- Role, BBC News World
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1 hour
The important thing is to leave. Their own lives and those of their families may depend on it.
They leave in trucks, cars, donkey carts or bicycles on which they carry what are presumably their only and, therefore, probably their most valuable belongings.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been fleeing the southern Gaza city of Rafah since the Israeli military dropped leaflets on Monday instructing them to evacuate an area in the east of that town and move to a “zone “expanded humanitarian aid” that extends from nearby Al Mawasi to the city of Khan Younis and the central town of Deir al-Balah.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) estimated that it was necessary to evacuate about 100,000 people to carry out a “limited operation” against Hamas targets in Rafah.
The same Monday, The IDF began bombing areas east of Rafah and soon after took control of the crossing between that city and Egypt, the only access point to the Strip that was not in Israeli hands. and that since the beginning of the war it had become an entry point for humanitarian aid, as well as a gateway for evacuation of the wounded.
While Israel has continued to build up forces around the city, including large numbers of tanks, More than 80,000 Palestinians have fled there, according to the UN
Among them there are probably many who are being displaced for the second time in this conflict, since of the 1.4 million people who were in Rafah as of last week, more than a million are Gazans who had abandoned their homes elsewhere in the region. Stripe.
Louise Wateridge, spokesperson for the UN Relief Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), told the BBC on Thursday afternoon that she was at a health center in the west of the city and could “hear and feel the bombing.” Approaching”.
“The building shakes frequently. There is a constant drone of drones,” he said. “The fear and nervousness that people had [en Rafah] now they have become terror.”
Image source, Reuters
Caption, Taking with them what they can, tens of thousands of people have left Rafah.
A difficult and hasty evacuation
Among those who have had to flee Rafah is Abdullah Yad El Arsha, who told the BBC how there were people offering transport to safe areas in exchange for exorbitant payments.
“We couldn’t find any means of transportation and the road was full of people. I walked 6 kilometers carrying my things and without money. The sellers asked between 80 shekels (US$21) and 1,000 shekels (US$268) to transport us from the east of Rafah to Al Mawasi or Khan Yunis.”
The BBC’s Gaza Today program spoke to a woman who described how the people of Rafah found themselves surrounded by “rings of fire” as they fled.
“Before our movement from Rafah, they fired missiles at us before launching the leaflets. After dropping the fliers, we found ourselves besieged by successive rings of fire.”
“We ran out of our houses and couldn’t even take our clothes with us. Shrapnel and fragments were scattered throughout the house, so we couldn’t take anything with us. “We had to leave in a very tragic and difficult way, and my children were shaking with fear.”
The director of the Kuwaiti Specialty Hospital, Jamal al-Hams, located in the center of Rafah and one of only two hospitals still partially functioning in the city, told the BBC that he was facing an increase in casualties, including many with “unusual injuries caused by unusual weapons.”
“I lived through all the previous wars [en Gaza]…where injuries always occurred in a certain area and were treated by a specialist. But now each case needs several specialists.”
It is also not clear that in the places to which they must move the situation will be much better.
“Where should they go? Tents and other supplies were supposed to be provided in other safe areas. This has not been done“said the Gazan doctor.
The IDF has told displaced people that they would find field hospitals, tents and additional relief supplies in the “expanded humanitarian zone.”
However, Palestinians and UN officials said that These were places that were already overcrowded and lacked essential serviceswhich were still being bombed or had been left in ruins after the recent fighting.
Fighting in eastern Rafah
Palestinian media said two people were killed Thursday afternoon in an Israeli airstrike in the al-Jneineh neighborhood, one of the areas in eastern Rafah whose evacuation was ordered by the IDF.
Three other people were reportedly killed in an airstrike in the nearby neighborhood of Brazil, which is not in the evacuation zone but is next to the border with Egypt and about 2.5 kilometers north of the Rafah crossing.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad – considered terrorist organizations by Israel, the United States and other countries – said that They were attacking Israeli forces with mortars and anti-tank missiles.
Hamas also said it had blown up a booby-trapped tunnel east of Rafah under three Israeli military vehicles. The IDF said three of its soldiers were slightly injured as a result of the explosion.
Overnight at least Five people were allegedly killed when a family’s home in the western neighborhood of Tal al-Sultan was hit by an Israeli strike.. Among them were three children, one of them a one-year-old baby, doctors said.
The IDF claimed on Wednesday afternoon that soldiers had been carrying out “targeted operations against terrorist infrastructure surrounding the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing and conducted operational raids against suspicious buildings in the area,” and that about 30 ” terrorists” had been eliminated.
They also said that Israeli planes had attacked targets in support of their troops.
Tensions with the United States
Caption, The Israeli authorities have mobilized a large number of tanks.
Israel’s offensive on Rafah is being watched carefully from the United States.
Since February, the government of President Joe Bien has warned that of his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, that should not launch a large-scale operation on Rafah without first preparing a plan to protect civilians that is found there.
Although Washington has said that it does not consider this to be the type of offensive it referred to in its warning, it was learned that the Biden administration had paused sending certain bombs to Israel last week for fear that it would carry out a large ground operation in Rafah, southern Gaza.
The shipment consisted of 1,800 900-kilogram bombs and another 1,700 230-kilogram bombs, a US official revealed to CBS News, the BBC’s partner in the US.
The American decision was harshly criticized by the most radical ministers in Netanyahu’s government.
“Hamas ♥ Biden,” said a message published by the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gviron his X account, while the far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said that Israel would achieve a “complete victory”, despite Biden’s “arms embargo”.
In an interview with CNN on Wednesday night, Biden reiterated that while he will continue to ensure Israel’s security, will stop the shipment of some weapons if Israel launches a major ground operation on Rafah.
“I have made it clear [al primer ministro israelí Netanyahu] and to the war cabinet that they will not get our support if they actually enter these population centers,” he said.
Considered the last stronghold of Hamas, Rafah is seen by Netanyahu’s government as a necessary target to be able to dismantle that Palestinian armed group.
“If Israel is restricted from accessing an area as important and central as Rafah, where there are thousands of terrorists, hostages and Hamas leaders, how exactly are we supposed to achieve our objectives?” asked Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, in a radio interview.
For his part, Netanyahu released a message this Thursday in which he seemed to respond to the United States: “If we need to be alone, we will be alone. I have said that, if necessary, we will fight with our nails. But we have much more than nails and with that same strength of spirit, with the help of God, together we will win,” he stated.
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