The Israeli army has begun evacuating some 100,000 Palestinians from eastern Rafaha city in the south of the Gaza Strip against which it has been preparing a ground assault for weeks.
“The estimate is about 100,000 people,” a military spokesman said when asked how many people were being evacuated from the city.
According to the World Health Organization, around 1.2 million people live in Rafah, most of them fleeing other areas of the Gaza Strip during the seven-month war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants.
Residents of the eastern neighborhoods of Rafah close to the so-called Philadelphia corridor bordering Egypt have received messages urging them to evacuate and head towards the “humanitarian zone” of Al Mawasi The Israeli Army reported this Monday.
“In accordance with the approval of the Government (Israel), an assessment of the ongoing situation will guide the gradual movement of civilians from the specified areas towards the humanitarian area” of Al Mawasi, the Army said in a statement.
According to the source, The evacuation order is “limited in scope” and “temporary” and has been transmitted through posters, SMS messages, phone calls and broadcasts in the Arabic media.
For the moment, the Army has not linked this evacuation with the announced land invasion of Rafah.
“(The Israeli Army) is about to operate forcefully against terrorist organizations in the area where you currently reside, as they have done until now. Anyone who remains in the area puts themselves and their families in danger. For your part security, evacuate immediately to the expanded humanitarian zone in Al Mawasi,” says one of the pamphlets released.
The Army said this morning, in an online press conference with the media, that the evacuation responds to another effort to “dismantle Hamas, bring back the hostages” and move the civilian population out of danger, but has not specified how much time residents have to comply with this forced evacuation.
The statement also details that the Al Mawasi area, close to Jan Yunis has been expanded and is receiving more humanitarian aid such as “field hospitals, tents, more food, water, medicines and additional supplies.”
The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reiterated yesterday that Israel will not end the war in Gaza, even if there was a temporary truce agreement with Hams, and for months has alluded to the “need” to destroy the battalions of the Islamist group that remain operational in Rafah.
This evacuation order comes less than 24 hours after yesterday, in an attack with a dozen rockets carried out by Hamas, Three soldiers died and eleven others were wounded in southern Gazanear the Kerem Shalom crossing, which remains closed and inoperative since the incident.
UNRWA complaint
The director of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini denounced last night that Israel had denied him entry to Gaza twice in the last week, as well as an increase in attacks against humanitarian convoys and their personnel.
“In the last two weeks alone, we have recorded 10 incidents involving shooting at convoys, arrests of UN personnel, including harassment, stripping, threats with weapons and long delays at checkpoints that forced convoys to move during the darkness or abort” their mission, Lazzarini said in his X account.
“These incidents occur repeatedly at a time when we are immersed in a race against time to avoid famine in Gaza,” adding that they also generate “fear” among humanitarian teams.