Palestinians in Rafah live in the shadow of constant terror as Israel vows to continue its planned offensive against the refugee-filled Southern Gaza city. Most residents of the Gaza Strip took refuge in Rafah in the southernmost part of the territory after fleeing Israeli bombardment elsewhere.
The Israeli army insists it will carry out a ground offensive to eliminate Hamas militants, despite international protests and concerns about the estimated 1.5 million Palestinians sheltering in Rafah. “We live in constant terror and fear in repeated displacements and invasions,” said Nidaa Safi, 30, who fled the Israeli offensive in the north and came to Rafah with her husband and children.
“We think about it all day,” he said. Even before Israeli forces began their expected attack, they launched devastating airstrikes.
An overnight attack on a house in Rafah killed a four-month-old baby, his mother, father and two brothers, relatives and neighbors told AFP. Hospital officials in Rafah said more than a dozen people died that night.
“Every day we hear news about the invasion of Rafah and that is a certain fact, apart from the bombings that we saw and heard,” said Safi. “Fear controls us. We don’t know how to think anymore,” he said.
His family has now decided to leave for Deir al-Balah, in the middle of the Gaza Strip. Safi said they hoped to escape Rafah before the Israeli military killed them.
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There is no safe place
No place is safe from attacks from various corners of the Israeli military. Samah Deeb, 32, decided to wait before leaving.
“The thought of being displaced again makes me very scared, because I have been displaced many times,” he said. Before leaving for Rafah, he had left home and took refuge at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
“The thought of having to work in another tent and moving all our belongings and the new costs that would be incurred was unbearable,” he said. “There is no other safe place and there is no other place other than Rafah to go to,” he explained.
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Deeb said he was monitoring the news closely before deciding on any unclear next steps. “Every time they ask us to evacuate Rafah, we will leave like other residents. But we pray to God that they do not attack Rafah and force us to experience the suffering caused by evacuation again,” he said.
Qasim Abu Nahl, 40, from Gaza City, said he had been displaced four times. “Moving from one place to another was very difficult for us,” he said.
They spent nearly two weeks enduring massive bombardments, bullets, and smoke bombs at the city’s Al-Rantisi Hospital before fleeing to Nuseirat in central Gaza with only the clothes that clung to their bodies. He fled the bombing in Nuseirat and made his way to the crowded and increasingly dangerous southern city of Khan Yunis before he reached Rafah.
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“We don’t know if we will be safe tomorrow or not,” he said. “Every day there is always new disturbing news about Rafah,” he said.
Another resident, Noor al-Farah, 56, had packed clothes, food and firewood with her husband and children in preparation. “I was mentally exhausted from the worrying news and waiting for the unknown,” he said.
He could not find another place outside Rafah for his family to live. He was afraid of snakes in the refugee camp.
New death
Gazans living in the Rafah camps also had to face unbearable temperatures as the heat wave began. Intisar Ramadan Ghaban said life in a hot tent for fear of an Israeli invasion was like a new death.
The 61-year-old woman said she had fled Gaza City and Nuseirat refugee camps before reaching Rafah. “The invasion of Rafah is what we fear most,” he said.
They are worried that the time will come when the Israeli military tells them to get out. But until then they don’t know where else to go.
“Will they give us a warning first? Or will we leave immediately without knowing what is happening, just carrying ourselves with nothing? Or will we be massively bombarded? We don’t know,” he concluded. (AFP/Z-2)
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