Palestinians pile their belongings into a vehicle as it heads towards safer areas in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Friday.
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AFP via Getty Images
Palestinians pile their belongings into a vehicle as it heads towards safer areas in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Friday.
AFP via Getty Images
TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost town, forcing even more Palestinians to relocate Saturday in anticipation of a likely expanded ground operation there.
The new evacuation orders concern areas closer to the city center. Israel warned the population that the army would act with “great force against terrorist organizations” in these neighborhoods, while attacking Hamas battalions in Rafah.
The new military orders came despite international concerns about the danger facing more than a million Palestinians who have sought refuge in Rafah, half of whom are children, according to UNICEF. More than half of Gaza’s population has been displaced to Rafah, and that is where most humanitarian groups were based for much of the last seven months of war.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army also called on residents of Jabalia and Beit Lahia in northern Gaza to move towards the western part of Gaza City, saying Hamas had regrouped in these areas.
More than 75% of the Gaza Strip is under evacuation order, according to the United Nations. Rafah residents tell NPR there is no safe place to flee in Gaza.
The Israeli military estimates that 300,000 residents have already left Rafah this week following the first evacuation orders for eastern parts of the city on Monday. Many left on foot, dragging children and pushing the injured in wheelchairs on roads littered with garbage and overflowing with sewage.
The army launched its ground attack on Rafah on Monday evening, erecting Israeli flags along the Gaza-Egypt border. The operation has effectively closed Gaza’s main crossing for aid and fuel, and means seriously injured Palestinians and foreign aid workers cannot leave.
The Israeli military described its actions as “precise operations in specific areas of eastern Rafah” and accused Hamas of using Gaza residents as “human shields for its terrorist activities and infrastructure.” In leaflets and messages, the army asked the population to move towards the areas of al-Mawasi and Khan Younis.
Hamas, which led the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war, says ceasefire talks held in Cairo this week have stalled. The group accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of wanting the war to continue in order to “achieve his personal goals and political ambitions.”
Aid groups rush to establish services outside Rafah
UNRWA, the main UN agency overseeing aid to the Palestinians, says no food or medical supplies have entered Gaza from the territory’s two main crossing points since Sunday. Only a few trucks have entered Gaza from a northern border crossing, far short of the quantity needed to stave off hunger and famine, according to humanitarian groups.
The UN, however, confirms that 200,000 liters of fuel were transferred by Israel to Gaza on Friday via the southern Kerem Shalom crossing after the closure of almost all bakeries in Gaza. Hospitals also lack fuel to power their generators.
“If we don’t start getting food…on Sunday, we’ll start to run out. That means there’s nothing left in the warehouses to distribute,” Scott Anderson, senior deputy director of UNRWA in Gaza.
The World Food Program said its main warehouse in Rafah is inaccessible due to fighting and evacuation orders.
Rafeek el-Madhoun, program manager for Rebuilding Alliance in Gaza, which partners with WFP to distribute hot meals, says it has reduced the number of kitchen stations in Rafah and is rushing to install new ones in areas of Gaza where people are. flee towards.
“With the ongoing invasion and the growing number of refugees, we contacted the WFP and told them we could get by for two to three weeks maximum,” he says, referring to the amount of food that they have in stock.
El-Madhoun says they are preparing up to 60,000 meals a day, about double what they were preparing as the population’s needs increased this week. Meanwhile, the price of basic food items like potatoes in the market is skyrocketing and vegetables and fruits are in short supply, he says.
Most of Gaza faces evacuation orders as hospitals close in Rafah
The United Nations says most of the Gaza Strip is under evacuation orders as people are crowded into smaller and smaller parts of the territory along its Mediterranean coast.
Aid groups are rushing to establish field clinics and kitchens in the al-Mawasi area, which the Israeli military has identified as an “expanded humanitarian zone.” Humanitarian groups say they are still trying to establish health services in this region.
“Life in Rafah right now is a nightmare. There are constant bombings and bombings, almost every 10 minutes,” says Moses Kondowe, Gaza team leader for Project Hope, which is working to relocate its field clinic from Rafah to Khan Younis.
All team members were displaced and began living in tents, the nonprofit says.
“Thousands of people are still stuck here, with nowhere to go.” » said Kondowe. “The situation is unbearable.”
Almost daily airstrikes on homes in Rafah have killed dozens of people this week, many of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry and survivors NPR spoke with.
This comes as hospitals and field clinics close their doors and evacuate patients to Rafah, according to doctors there.
The US State Department said in a report on Friday that it was “reasonable to assess” that Israel had violated international humanitarian law during its operations in Gaza.
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