Gaza- Riyad Al-Khatib insisted on staying in his home in the Tal Al-Sultan neighborhood, west of Rafah, until what he described as “the last moment,” when the Israeli occupation would expel him, similar to what happened in the eastern areas and neighborhoods of the city.
This neighborhood is still “vibrating with life”, despite the fact that the majority of the displaced people in it have left for different destinations. Al-Khatib told Tel Aviv Tribune Net that the ground military operation in the east of the city terrified the residents and displaced people, and many preferred displacement for fear of its expansion to the rest of the city’s neighborhoods and areas.
On May 6, the occupation began a military operation in Rafah, which was inhabited by less than 300,000 people before the outbreak of war, but it became the last refuge for the displaced who were forced to leave their homes, as their number is estimated at more than a million people.
The streets of Rafah appear empty as families continue to flee in search of safety, and their members face constant exhaustion, hunger and fear, as there is no safe place in the Gaza Strip, according to data from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
Huge displacement
With an imaginary line drawn with “firepower,” the occupation divides the city of Rafah – the smallest city in the Gaza Strip – into two halves: western and its largest neighborhood, Tal Al-Sultan, and eastern, which includes the “Yabna” and “Al-Shaboura” refugee camps, and the neighborhoods of Brazil, Al-Jeneina, Al-Salam, Al-Shawka, and other areas close to the crossing. Rafah, along with Egypt and the Israeli security fence, have turned into “ghost towns.”
Movement beyond the Za’rob Junction to the east is considered to be fraught with extreme danger, even though the Israeli evacuation orders did not cover all of this area. However, people feared a large and widespread operation, and many residents and displaced people decided to leave the city, in fear of a fate similar to what happened in the neighboring city of Khan Yunis. According to Al-Khatib.
International and local estimates indicate that approximately 800,000 Palestinians have been displaced from the city of Rafah so far, the majority of whom were forced to leave their areas of residence, following the outbreak of war in October of last year, as “Tal al-Sultan” was one of the neighborhoods that received the most displaced people. The homes of relatives and friends, shelter centers, and tents spread across the streets, lands, squares, and public squares were crowded with them.
Al-Ghazi Al-Khatib is not surprised by the rapid “emptying” of the city, and says that what the occupation committed in its ground operation in Khan Yunis, and before it in the center and north of the Gaza Strip, causes terror in the hearts of the people, and makes them prefer safety and search for less dangerous places.
This sixty-year-old man fears for himself and his family. He prepared for the moment of displacement from his home by setting up a tent in the Mawasi Khan Yunis area, ready to move to at any moment, but he does not want to leave early and increase the period of homelessness and suffering.
Al-Khatib currently receives two displaced families from Gaza City in his home, and he finds encouragement from them and his neighbors to stick to staying in the neighborhood and not to rush the exodus. In his opinion, every extra day that Karim spends in his home is a gain for him.
But the movement disappeared or diminished to a large extent from most of the neighborhood’s streets, which were filled with displaced people’s tents, stalls, and street vendors, and many goods and merchandise also disappeared. According to Al-Khatib, humanitarian aid was completely cut off, and prices in the market are still exorbitant.
Claims of humanity
UNRWA says that the displaced have left most of the shelter centers in Rafah, and have taken refuge in Al-Mawasi in Khan Yunis and Deir Al-Balah, which have become unbearably overcrowded and are suffering from miserable humanitarian conditions.
Jihad Abd Rabbo moved his family from the Al-Jeneina neighborhood, east of the city, to land he owned in Mawasi Rafah. Over the past few days, he tried in vain to find an empty space in the neighboring Mawasi Khan Yunis to set up his tent, where the displaced people’s tents are crowded together as far as the eye can see.
Although Rafah’s mainland areas do not fall within the scope of what the occupation has designated as the “expanded humanitarian zone”, which begins from Khan Yunis to the north of Deir al-Balah in the center of the Gaza Strip, in addition to the atmosphere of terror that Jihad and his family are experiencing due to the non-stop gunfire from aircraft and naval boats, They struggle to manage water and basic needs.
The flow of aid stopped after the occupation stormed and reoccupied the Rafah crossing, and UNRWA says that the current military operation in Rafah directly affects the ability of aid agencies to enter vital humanitarian supplies.
Abd Rabbo told Tel Aviv Tribune Net, “Al-Mawasi is a barren area, especially Al-Mawasi Rafah, and it does not have the necessities of life, so how can they call it a humanitarian zone?” This is the same opinion that the mayor of Rafah, Ahmed Al-Sufi, agrees with. He told Al-Jazeera Net that those who left Rafah had no choice but to do so. Al-Mawasi is an area that lacks the basic necessities of life, as water is very scarce, and there are no vital facilities.
Big prison
Services and cleanliness in the city of Rafah were directly affected, as a result of the scarcity of fuel needed for waste collection and transport mechanisms, and the operation of the main water wells. According to Al-Sufi, municipal crews are unable to work in the east and center of the city, and they have become lacking in basic services, most notably water.
Al-Sufi views the occupation of the Rafah crossing, which is considered the only outlet for Gazans to the outside world, and the prevention of the travel of the sick and wounded and the entry of aid, in addition to the closure of the only commercial crossing of Kerem Shalom, as a slow death sentence for 2.2 million Gazans.
With the closure of these two crossings, the sector turns into a “large prison,” and according to the Director General of the Government Information Office, Ismail Al-Thawabta, “the continued closure of the two crossings heralds famine.” He told Al-Jazeera Net that the occupation of the Rafah crossing stopped the flow of humanitarian aid, and deprived more than 10,000 wounded and sick people of the opportunity to travel. For treatment abroad.
The military operation in eastern Rafah led to the only Abu Youssef Al-Najjar government hospital being out of service, in addition to the primary care centers in the east and center of the city. There are currently no refrigerators for storing the dead, a dialysis unit, or many other medical services. The mayor of the city says that Hayat Those remaining in the city, the wounded and sick, are in grave danger.
The Ministry of Health and international organizations are making strenuous efforts to restart Nasser Governmental Hospital in Khan Yunis, to which numbers of displaced people have moved, most of whom are indigenous residents who preferred to reclaim parts of their destroyed homes and reside there rather than live in tents.
Umm Ali Al-Masry, who was displaced with her family in Rafah for 6 months, was suffering after she found her home destroyed. She took refuge in an apartment for her daughter and her husband in a partially destroyed residential building that lacked water and sanitation. She told Al-Jazeera Net, “My daughter’s husband carries gallons of water from a point adjacent to Nasser Hospital, at a price High, 4 shekels per 20-liter gallon (more than a dollar).”
But what Umm Ali is suffering from is what Umm Ahmad Abu Hatab wishes she could wish for. She no longer has a place to return to in Abasan al-Kabira, east of Khan Yunis. She lives in a tent in Al-Mawasi that does not have a bathroom or toilet. She and her family of 7 members are forced to use public bathrooms, which was a reason… in the spread of diseases.
This woman, who was displaced five times before her last exodus from Rafah to Mawasi Khan Yunis, says, “Our homes are destroyed, as is our health. Months pass and the war continues to steal our lives, and our lives are getting worse.”