by Mohammad Salem
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) – Nahla Jarwane left her home in the central Gaza Strip after the launch of a major Israeli offensive in retaliation for the Hamas attack. Like more than a million other Palestinians, she found refuge in Rafah, at the southern tip of the enclave, bordering Egypt.
But the city is now targeted by Israeli bombings. The IDF announced that it had released two hostages during the night from Sunday to Monday during a commando operation carried out in Rafah, where Israeli strikes left dozens dead and injured according to local health authorities.
Nahla Jarwane will now return to the area she fled, deploring that no place is safe in the Palestinian enclave. Dozens of other people also said Tuesday that they were leaving Rafah, citing bombings and airstrikes carried out by Israel in recent days.
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“I fled Al-Maghazi, I came to Rafah, and now I am reduced to returning to Al-Maghazi,” says Nahla Jarwane, referring to the refugee camp located in the heart of the Gaza Strip where she resided before the Israeli offensive.
“Last night was very difficult. We are returning to Al-Maghazi out of fear, displaced from one area to another,” she adds. “Wherever we go, there is no security.”
Israel describes the town of Rafah as the “last bastion” of Hamas and intends to intensify its military operations in the south of the Gaza Strip to achieve its announced objective of “eradicating” the Palestinian group responsible for the October 7 attack which left 1,200 dead and during which 250 people were kidnapped, according to the Israeli authorities.
While the Israeli army initially focused its bombings and operations in the north of the Gaza Strip, the southern tip of the enclave was perceived by Palestinian civilians as a sanctuary.
Nearly 1.5 million people are in Rafah, six times more than before October 7, according to data from the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). It is also via this city that humanitarian aid brought to the enclave since the start of the conflict has been delivered.
“WE DON’T KNOW WHERE TO GO ANYMORE”
According to local health authorities, more than 28,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of Israeli strikes, which have also ravaged entire neighborhoods of the enclave, knocked out hospitals and schools, and caused a food crisis.
The IDF intensified its offensive in the south of the enclave at the beginning of December, mainly around the town of Khan Younes.
Israeli tanks targeted eastern Rafah overnight Monday to Tuesday, residents said, although the IDF does not yet appear to have launched the expected ground offensive.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the army to prepare a plan to evacuate Rafah and eliminate the Hamas brigades present there, his services said.
US President Joe Biden, who spoke by telephone with Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, told the latter that Israel should not carry out a military operation in Rafah without guaranteeing the safety of civilians who have found refuge there.
NGOs and foreign governments have said Palestinian civilians displaced by the fighting have nowhere to go. Egypt has reiterated that it will not allow any exodus of Palestinian refugees into its territory.
Sitting in a vehicle where she has gathered all her belongings, Nahla Jarwane says she hopes the war will end quickly.
“We are tired of fleeing from one city to another. I hope that the world stands by our side and looks at us with kindness and mercy,” she says, listing the daily lives of Gazans – “martyrs, bombings, destruction, death, famine, thirst.”
Momen Chbair decided to return to Khan Younès, less than ten kilometers from Rafah, where he also spent a difficult night. “We are lost. We no longer know where to go,” he said, sitting on a cart pulled by a donkey, on a sandy road near the coast.
“I pray that the international community will put pressure on Israel to stop the war. We are tired of going from one place to another.”
(Reporting by Mohammad Salem, with Nidal al-Mughrabi; French version Jean Terzian, editing by Tangi Salaün)
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