Israel is preparing to evacuate the residents of Rafah

Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets into the airspace of Rafah city, in the far south of the Gaza Strip, early Monday morning, urging residents in the eastern parts of the city to evacuate and go to the Al-Mawasi area, west of the Gaza Strip.

In leaflets dropped on the eastern districts of Rafah, the Israeli army claimed to have “expanded the humanitarian zone in the Al-Mawasi region to the west”.

Along with the leaflets, the Israeli army attached a map of the area and its borders, as well as the areas to be evacuated, which are located east of Rafah.

The Al-Mawasi area is located in the west of the Gaza Strip and its borders stretch from Deir al-Balah (center) to the extreme south of Rafah (south). Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have found refuge there in recent months. The region lacks vital infrastructure and cannot accommodate more displaced people, according to local Palestinian sources.

According to Palestinians in Gaza, leaflets dropped on the eastern Rafah settlement warn that the Israeli army is preparing to act strongly against the Palestinian resistance and that anyone who remains “in the area is endangering their lives and the lives of their families”.

“The evacuation process has begun on the ground, in a limited way. Residents are evacuating in terror and panic,” said Palestinian Red Crescent official in East Rafah Ossama al-Kahlout, who said the designated evacuation areas were home to approximately 250,000 people. , including many people already displaced from other areas of the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army confirmed that it had “launched a large-scale operation… for the temporary evacuation of people living in eastern Rafah”, a military spokesman insisted, putting the number of people at “around 100,000”.

The operation, which is part of Israel’s plans to crack down on Palestinian resistance, comes on the heels of the deaths of three Israeli soldiers, killed by rockets fired east of Rafah around the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip. The rocket fire, in which twelve Israeli soldiers were also wounded, was taken over by the Ezzedine al-Qasam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.

A couple from Rafah told AFP they learned the news of the evacuation when they woke up, after a night full of anxiety punctuated by a dozen Israeli strikes.

These strikes, which targeted two houses in Rafah and its surroundings in the Gaza Strip, decimated two families of sixteen people, we learn from a hospital source.

Rescuers reported nine deaths in the “Al Attar family” and another seven in the “Keshta family.” A hospital source confirmed the number of casualties, specifying that they occurred “in the refugee camp from Yebna to Rafah.” the surrounding areas of Al Salam”.

“Everyone who lives in certain areas is evacuating their homes,” a resident, whose sister lives in the affected neighborhood, told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“My family and I, 13 people, do not know where to go,” Abdul Rahman Abu Jazar, 36, a resident of the settlement to be evacuated, told AFP: the “humanitarian zones” designated by the Israeli army are already “overpopulated”, without ” places to pitch tents or schools to shelter us”. “There is no hospital in this area”, he continues, “my uncle’s wife is undergoing kidney treatment” in the hospital in Rafa, which is located in the area to be evacuated, “how are we going to carry with her? Wait until you die and watch without being able to do anything?

The Israeli army also warned in its leaflets against returning to Gaza City or the areas north of the Palestinian enclave. “Approaching the eastern and southern security barriers (border with Egypt)” would also be prohibited.

According to the UN, about 1.2 million residents, most of whom have been pushed there by the fighting, are gathering in Rafah, a city on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip.

Fearing bloodshed among civilians, capitals and international organizations oppose the operation announced by Tel Aviv, under the pretext of destroying the last battalions of Hamas.