They are preparing for the worst. On Monday, the Israeli army asked people living in Rafah to evacuate the city. Still at war with Hamas, the Jewish state is reportedly on the verge of carrying out a major military operation in the east of this city located in the Gaza Strip. Around 100,000 people would be affected, an operation of “limited scale”. Populations are forced to move to humanitarian areas.
Calls to evacuate were communicated through leaflets, text messages, phone calls and messages broadcast in Arabic in the media. Some reportedly received maps telling them where to go. The army assures in its press release that it has “expanded the humanitarian zone in al-Mawasi”, around ten kilometers from Rafah, where “field hospitals, tents and an increasing volume of food, water, medicine and others “.
According to the UN, around 1.2 million inhabitants, the majority pushed there by the fighting, are crowding into Rafah, a town located on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip. Fearing a bloodbath among civilians, capitals and international organizations are opposing the announced operation by Israel, which says it is essential for its troops to enter Rafah to destroy the last bastions of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. “Our goal is to fight Hamas, not the people of Gaza. And this is why we are carrying out this precise temporary evacuation,” defended the army spokesperson.
American Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently asked the Jewish state and Benjamin Netanyahu not to intervene in this area. In vain.