Brian McDonald
Israel’s military ordered Palestinians in the eastern part of the Gaza Strip city of Rafah to evacuate on Monday ahead of a ground offensive long promised by the Jewish state’s leaders. The message was delivered through leaflets, phone calls, messages and media broadcasts in Arabic, following a weekend that brought hope for a new ceasefire within seven months. Israel-Hamas War frustrated once again.
People quickly began fleeing the eastern part of Rafah on Monday, on foot or by any other means available.
The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has underlined its intention to carry out an incursion into Rafah, the southernmost city of Gaza, over the past week, despite the latest efforts led by the US, Qatar and Egypt to mediate a new ceasefire agreement.
AFP/Getty
However, these diplomatic efforts appeared to fail on Sunday, with Israel and Hamas blaming each other for the impasse and Hamas then carrying out a deadly rocket attack at an Israeli military checkpoint near a major border crossing between Israel and Gaza.
President Biden has pressured Israel for weeks to limit the scope of any Rafah operation and not launch a ground offensive against the city without ensuring the safety of more than 1 million displaced Palestinian civilians believed to have sought refuge there from across the Strip. of Gaza.
The Israel Defense Forces said on Monday it expected to evacuate up to 100,000 people from the eastern part of Rafah. In the messages, they were told to head several kilometers northwest to the al-Mawasi area on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast, where humanitarian aid was prepared. The military said these preparations included basic needs such as food, water and medicine, as well as a field hospital.
While there had been hope last week Although the latest wave of international diplomacy could yield a new deal to secure the release of dozens more Israeli hostages held in Gaza in exchange for a halt to fighting – avoiding an offensive on Rafah – the IDF appeared to be preparing for such an operation in the wake of Hamas attack on the Kerem Shalom border crossing.
Amir Cohen/REUTERS
Hamas militants launched the rocket attack on Sunday from the eastern part of Rafah, hitting the IDF checkpoint just 300 meters away, close to the crossing point. The attack killed three IDF soldiers and injured three more.
The IDF has not confirmed that the evacuation order issued on Monday was directly linked to the Hamas attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhuri was quoted by the Reuters news agency on Monday as saying the evacuation order constituted “a dangerous escalation” by Israel, which he warned would “have consequences”.
Zuhuri blamed the US for continuing to support Israel in the war, which was triggered by Hamas’ unprecedented Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel that saw the militants kill about 1,200 people and take about 240 hostage. About 100 of those captives, including five US citizens, are believed to still be alive, held by Hamas or its allies in Gaza.
Media outlet Axios, citing an unnamed Hamas official, said on Monday that the group – long designated a terrorist organization by Israel and the US – was threatening to abandon negotiations for another hostage release and ceasefire over the evacuation order.
For the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have sought refuge in Rafah – many of them already displaced several times by Israel’s war with Hamas rulers in Gaza – Monday morning brought more fear and uncertainty.
“They are calling people in the eastern area of Rafah, some also in the western area, near the Rafah crossing, ordering them to leave,” said Palestinian Abu Muhey, who is sheltering with family north of Rafah. “We don’t know what to do, but I will take my family to Deir Al-Balah,” he said, suggesting they would try to flee further north, into the decimated Palestinian territory.
Given the scale of destruction already in Gaza, U.S. officials have expressed concern for weeks about the feasibility of moving so many people out of harm’s way before any offensive on Rafah. The United Nations, however, issued a series of increasingly dire warnings that a large-scale military operation in the city would leave hundreds of thousands of civilians at risk of death.
“An Israeli offensive on #Rafah would mean more civilian suffering and deaths. The consequences would be devastating for 1.4 million people,” reiterated the UN humanitarian agency for the Palestinians, UNRWA, in a social media post on Monday.
“UNRWA is not evacuating,” the UN agency stated bluntly in its tweet. “The Agency will maintain a presence in Rafah as long as possible and will continue to provide vital aid to people.”
Ramy Inocêncio
