Israel – Hamas war: how is Rafah, the city where the largest number of Gaza refugees live and in which Israel ordered its forces to “be ready for operations”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the army to be ready to evacuate civilians from the southern Gaza city of Rafah ahead of an expanded offensive against Hamas.

About 1.5 million Palestinians live in Rafah, refugees from Israeli war operations in the rest of Gaza.

“It is impossible to achieve the goals of the war without eliminating Hamas and leaving Four battalions of Hamas in RafahNetanyahu’s office said in a statement issued on Friday.

“On the contrary, it is clear that the intensified activity in Rafah requires that civilians evacuate the war zone,” the statement said.

Netanyahu asked military and security officials to present to the cabinet “a joint plan to evacuate the population and destroy battalions” of Hamas.

Netanyahu had said this earlier this week Troops were ordered to “be operationally prepared” Israel’s “total victory” in Rafah and over Hamas was only months away.

The United States warned Israel that an invasion of Rafah would occur a disaster”While the European Union and the United Nations expressed their concern.

For their part, humanitarian groups have said it is not possible to evacuate all people from Rafah.

The city of Rafah, located 30 kilometers south of Gaza, is the largest urban center on the border with Egypt.

Most of Rafah’s population has been displaced by fighting elsewhere in Gaza and lives in tents.

Only four months earlier the city had an estimated population of 280,000, but with the massive influx of refugees has increased almost five timesAccording to the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

Rafah is the only border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

Hundreds of foreigners living in the strip have left the Rafah crossing with their families and humanitarian aid has also arrived for residents of the area.

On Friday, the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, wrote in a social media post: “The reports of the Israeli military attack in Rafah are worrying. It will disastrous consequences This would worsen the already dire humanitarian situation and the unbearable number of civilian victims.

Earlier this week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of a “humanitarian nightmare” in the city.

His spokesman Stéphane Dujarric later said: “We are extremely concerned about the fate of civilians in Rafah… I think what is clear is that people need to be protected, but we are not concerned about anything on a large scale. Don’t want to see forced displacement either.” People. ,

Meanwhile, Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, said “concern and panic are growing in Rafah”.

“People he doesn’t know where to go After Rafa,” Lazzarini told reporters in Jerusalem.

“Any large-scale military operation among this population can only lead to an additional layer of endless tragedy.”

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the Israeli military “has a special responsibility to ensure that when conducting operations there or anywhere else”. Keep in mind the protection of innocent civilian lives,

“A military operation at this time would be a disaster for those people and is not something we would support,” he said. He said the United States has not seen anything to suggest Israel is going to immediately launch a major operation in Rafah.

State Department deputy spokesman Vedanta Patel echoed Kirby’s comments: “We (the United States) would not support doing something like this without a serious and credible plan.”

Asked by the BBC where refugees in Rafah should go in the event of an incursion, Patel said these were “legitimate questions that we think the Israelis should answer.”

Speaking in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel “conducts whatever military operations citizens must be put first

According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, At least 15 people died on Friday, eight of them in Rafah, from Israeli attacks. Israel had no immediate comment.

“If they come to Rafah, it will be the end for us, as if we are waiting for death. We have nowhere else to go,” said Garda al-Kurd, a mother of two who has been living since she was six years old. Were displaced several times. conflict, told the BBC. war.

Since Israel began retaliating against Hamas, its forces have forced the civilian population into the Gaza Strip and further south.

However, the Gazans who have managed to reach Rafah They’ve run out of places to goSince a small area of ​​41 kilometers long has been consumed.

The city is a narrow strip of land surrounded by the Egyptian and Israeli border fence and the Mediterranean Sea.

Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, told the BBC that the invasion into Rafah, which he called “the world’s largest displaced persons camp”, would be a catastrophe.

“There are people on their weak plastic sheets. They are fighting for food. There is no drinking water. There are epidemic diseases and now they (Israeli forces) want to bring war to this place,” he said.

In Rafa today they live almost 1.5 million people In crowded shelters or outside on the streets or in the sand of a nearby beach.

Dr. Santosh Kumar, who left the Gaza Strip last week, said that the city is so crowded that even ambulances cannot run on the roads.

“This is a very big prison,” Kumar said in a statement to the BBC Arabic service.

Palestinians gathering in Rafah must wait hours for food and water, which is often contaminated.

Kumar says that waste water flows uncontrolled to the surface today, becoming a source of disease for a malnourished population with almost no medicine.

Similarly, he assured that the city’s poor public services had collapsed due to Israeli bombardment and the massive influx of refugees.

For its part, the ActionAid organization assures that some people are being forced to eat grass.

“Everyone in Gaza is hungry now and people only get food 1.5 to 2 liters of contaminated water per day To meet all their needs,” added the charitable group.

According to Israeli officials, more than 1,200 people were killed during Hamas attacks on southern Israel on 7 October.

More than 27,900 Palestinians have been killed and at least 67,000 wounded in the Israeli-launched retaliatory offensive, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

,With reporting by Marietta Moloney, Tom Bateman, Katherine Armstrong, Patrick Jackson and BBC Arabic Service

And remember you can receive our notifications. Download the new versions of the apps and activate them so you don’t miss our best content.