Middle East

Thousands flee Rafah on fears of long-threatened Israeli assault

Israel rejects initial ceasefire terms accepted by Hamas and says military operation will continue

Displaced Palestinians from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip following an evacuation order by the Israeli army arrive at Khan Yunis. Photograph: Getty Images

Jason Burke
Malak Tantesh
Jonathan Yerushalmy
Mon May 6 2024 - 20:10

Thousands of people have been evacuating from Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, after the Israeli military told residents and displaced people in eastern neighbourhoods to leave in advance of a long-threatened attack on the city and its environs.

Witnesses described frightened families leaving the city on foot, riding donkeys or packed with their belongings into overloaded trucks on Monday. Overnight Israeli air strikes had reinforced “panic and fear”, prompting more to heed the instructions to move.

“There is extreme tension in all areas of Rafah, including areas west of the city. Many have begun to think about evacuating, and many have already evacuated,” one witness said.

Initial hopes on Monday evening that an announcement that Hamas had accepted ceasefire terms following negotiations brokered by Qatar and Egypt would mean the invasion would not proceed were followed by a rejection by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the terms negotiated. He said that the military operation would continue and Israel said that further strikes on Rafah continued on Monday night. However, Israel is to send a team to negotiate on what it hopes will be revised terms.

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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said earlier that they had dropped leaflets and were broadcasting instructions through “announcements, text messages, phone calls and media broadcasts in Arabic” telling residents to head to an “expanded humanitarian zone” on the coast.

“This is an evacuation plan to get people out of harm’s way,” said an Israeli military spokesperson.

Rafah has been sheltering more than a million people displaced from elsewhere in Gaza during the seven-month war and is a key logistics base for humanitarian operations across the territory. Dense tent encampments surround the city and have also already crowded al-Mawasi, the coastal zone about three miles northeast to which Israel has told people to evacuate.

A rocket barrage launched by Hamas on Sunday from Rafah against a military base near the Kerem Shalom checkpoint, which killed four soldiers, may have spurred the Israeli decision.

The IDF spokesperson described the evacuation as “part of our plans to dismantle Hamas … we had a violent reminder of their presence and their operational abilities in Rafah yesterday”.

Israel’s military has ordered Palestinians to move out of eastern Rafah, warning it is about to use “extreme force” in southern Gaza.

As indirect negotiations in Cairo for a ceasefire faltered in recent days, senior Israeli officials have vowed repeatedly to launch an attack on Rafah, despite strong international opposition and calls for restraint from the US, Israel’s staunchest ally. Following the Hamas announcement late on Monday - greeted by cheers in Gaza- a spokesman for the US State Department said that it was aware of the organisation’s response and was discussing it will allies. He reiterated calls on Israel not to proceed with the Rafah invasion.

In a televised address on Sunday, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu had rejected Hamas’s demands for a definitive end to the war in Gaza, saying that any permanent ceasefire would allow the Islamist organisation to remain in power and pose a continuing threat to Israel.

Israeli officials have repeatedly said a “decisive victory” requires the destruction of a substantial Hamas combat force they say is based in Rafah, and the capture or killing of top Hamas leaders thought to be sheltering in tunnels under the city, possibly with dozens of hostages taken by the organisation during the surprise October 7th attack on Israel that triggered the conflict.

A senior Hamas official described the Israeli order for civilians to evacuate Rafah as a “dangerous escalation that will have consequences”.

“The US administration, alongside the occupation, bears responsibility for this terrorism,” Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters

The IDF said the forthcoming operation was of “limited scope” and estimated it would need to move about 100,000 people.

“This matter will progress in a gradual manner according to ongoing situation assessments that will take place all the time,” said a spokesperson.

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The IDF has said it is expanding the “humanitarian zone” in al-Mawasi with additional tents and field hospitals.

Humanitarian officials and displaced people already living there describe acute overcrowding, inadequate food, limited fresh water and an almost total absence of sanitation. Israeli forces have also bombarded targets in al-Mawasi at least twice in recent months.

Humanitarian officials have long warned of massive disruption to the effort to stave off famine in Gaza in the event of a big Israeli offensive in the south. Any attack on Rafah would lead to “the collapse of the aid response”, said the Norwegian Refugee Council.

The death toll in Gaza from the Israeli military offensive is more than 34,500, mostly women and children. A reprisal strike on a house in Rafah reportedly killed at least three Palestinians. Israel accuses Hamas of using civilians as a human shield, a charge the militant Islamist organisation rejects.

The Hamas attack in October killed 1,200 mostly civilians in their homes or at a music festival in southern Israel, according to Israel. About 250 hostages were taken, of whom 105 were released in return for 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails during a short-lived truce in November. — Guardian

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