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Displaced Palestinians moved with their belongings from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, following the Israeli military’s evacuation order, arriving in Khan Yunis, May 6, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas. (Credit: AFP via Getty Images)

Palestinian civilians leaving eastern Rafah after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) ordered an evacuation have described their fear and frustration to a CNN correspondent in the area.

Mohammad Ghanem and his wife were pushing a stroller loaded with luggage. “Now we have no home. We are moving towards Mwasi because the Israelis have no protection. They are killing women and children,” Ghanem told CNN.

Ghanem said: “We left because they distributed leaflets and are attacking everywhere without differentiating between children, adults, militants or non-militants. I left my house which I have been building for 17 years.”

Another woman from East Rafah said: “The Israelis sent us messages ordering us to leave. We can’t stay.”

“I’m going into the unknown. I feel very bad. I wish one of the people who did this to us was walking with us,” Faisal Barbakh, a man on a bicycle, told CNN.

“I have lived here all my life. My family has been destroyed in seven places. I feel this is the end of life. I can’t think anymore. I have left behind 59 years of life, all my memories, photos The contract of my children, my house, only God knows how much hard work I have put into it, it is not just my feeling, it is everyone’s.

Videos from the area showed trucks loaded with people’s belongings passing through the streets, with the streets becoming more crowded as the day progressed.

Two boys, Malek and Yusuf, grabbed their bags and set out alone on bicycles. One of them said: “We fled from the Israelis. They warned us and ordered to evacuate the eastern area. I have my clothes and food in my bag. We are going to my grandparents’ house.”

Many of those leaving East Rafah have been displaced before. One man told CNN, “This is the fourth time I’ve been displaced. From Nussirat to Khan Younis, then to Rafah, and now another one. I don’t know where I’m going.”

Not all people were heading to areas designated safe by the Israel Defense Forces. Baker al Mamoun told CNN: “I’m not going. Where am I going? To Mawasi among the displaced? No, I prefer to be with my family. Do you want to displace us like in ’48 “I will never accept it.”

In Mwasi, a coastal area already teeming with displaced people, some of the newcomers were confused and disoriented. The roads were filled with trucks and donkey carts amidst huge piles of garbage.

“I came here from Rafah and I can’t find any place to stay. People even say we should move (here). I swear I don’t know why,” Mohammed Abu Khamash told CNN. Where to go? They distributed leaflets and people got scared and started running”.

Ahmed Safi said he and his family had left Khan Younis in the direction of Rafah. “We had to endure air raids that put our lives and those of our children in danger. We set out in search of a better life that we could live with our families.”

Safi said that he brings water every day. “There is no life there. It is very complicated. I arrived in Khan Yunis and I felt very depressed. It was a city full of life and happiness, but now it is not even worth living in. We are 8 members of a family. We Came from Rafah in a car. “I’m still in shock about leaving Rafah.”

“There is no security anywhere. The Israelis can enter whenever they want, wherever they want,” Safi said.

Abu Salah said he left Rafah amid heavy gunfire. “There is no security. Security is in my house. Security moving from one place to another like a cat with her babies, begging for some water and a (food) coupon?”

Salah said, “As long as we (Hamas) and the Israelis want to defend their positions, there will be no solution. There will be no solution. The solution is in the hands of God.”

The woman named Maha said that Palestinian citizens are at the mercy of the Israeli army. “They can tell you to go here and they can kill you here, or they can tell you to go there and they can kill you there. They don’t want protection for us.”

He said, “The solution is to end this cause, not only to stop the war, but to create a Palestinian state.”