Nearly 800,000 Palestinians Displaced from Rafah Amid Ongoing Conflict
Nearly 800,000 Palestinians have been displaced from Rafah since Israel launched its offensive against the southern Gaza city last week, according to Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees.
Lazzarini condemned the repeated displacement of Palestinians in a statement on Saturday.
“Since the war in Gaza began, Palestinians have been forced to flee multiple times in search of safety that they have never found, including in UNRWA shelters,” Lazzarini said. “When people move, they are exposed, without safe passage or protection. Every time, they are forced to leave behind the few belongings they have: mattresses, tents, cooking utensils, and basic supplies that they cannot carry or pay to transport. Every time, they have to start from scratch, all over again.”
Saturday saw intense fighting across Gaza, not just in Rafah, with Israeli attacks killing dozens of Palestinians.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that 83 Palestinians had been killed over the previous 24 hours. Later, Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Ismail Alghoul reported that 40 bodies had reached Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza after Israel bombed the Jabalia refugee camp. At least 15 people were killed in one attack.
Wafa news agency also reported four Palestinians killed in Israel’s bombing of Khan Younis, north of Rafah, and three others in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
The widespread violence highlights humanitarian advocates’ warnings that there is nowhere safe for people in Rafah to flee to.
Israel has faced international warnings, including from its top ally, the United States, against invading Rafah.
However, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be ignoring those calls and proceeding with the assault.
Last week, Israeli forces seized the Rafah crossing that links Gaza to Egypt.
The gate, a crucial point for life-saving aid and humanitarian worker access, has been closed since May 7, trapping thousands of sick and injured Palestinians who might have had a chance to receive treatment abroad.
Before the assault began, Rafah was home to 1.5 million people, most of whom had been displaced from other parts of Gaza.
Throughout the war, Israel has ordered Palestinian civilians in Gaza to move south as it invaded from the north. Many residents were first displaced to the middle part of the enclave, then moved to the southern city of Khan Younis, and ultimately forced to flee again to Rafah. Now, people from Rafah are fleeing northward.
Netanyahu has portrayed Rafah as the last Hamas stronghold in the territory. However, as the Israeli army invades the city, fighting is raging in Jabalia and the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City in the north of the enclave. Israel claimed in January that it had dismantled Hamas’s “military framework” in the north.
On Saturday, the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, claimed several attacks against Israeli forces, including targeting military vehicles with rocket-propelled grenades in Rafah and Jabalia. The group also said it killed 20 Israeli soldiers in two separate operations in Rafah.
The Israeli military announced that it had recovered the remains of Israeli captive Ron Binyamin, who was reportedly killed during Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel. Israel had said a day earlier that it had found the bodies of three other captives based on new intelligence.
However, Hamas appeared to downplay the significance of the Israeli announcement.
“The enemy’s leadership is pushing its soldiers into the alleyway of Gaza to return in coffins, so they can look for the remains of some captives that it [Israel] targeted and killed earlier,” Abu Obaida, the Qassam Brigades spokesperson, said in a statement.
