Gaza [Palestine], May 12: Some 150,000 Gazans have fled from Rafah since the start of the week, fearing an Israeli advance into the city, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) posted on X on Saturday.
However, the Israel Defense Forces say an estimated 300,000 people had followed the evacuation orders since the beginning of the week, in a statement that could not be independently verified.
Israel has now expanded its calls on residents of Rafah to include those in the centre and other parts of the city, telling them to move to the town of Al-Mawasi on the Mediterranean coast. The army seems set to expand its operation to eliminate Palestinian militant Islamist Hamas, though calls are growing louder to desist, including from the UN and the United States, Israel's main backer.
Families are packing their belongings all over the city, an UNRWA employee wrote on X. "The streets are much emptier." UNRWA says 110,000 Palestinians had left the city on the border with Egypt by the previous day. Some 300,000 people are affected by Israel's latest evacuation orders, which also cover areas in other parts of the coastal strip, UNRWA said.
With Saturday's orders, Israeli forces have now evacuated the eastern third of Rafah, pushing into the edges of the heavily populated central area.
The orders come in the face of international opposition and criticism. President Joe Biden has already said the United States will not provide offensive weapons to Israel due to its Rafah offensive. The United Nations and other agencies have warned for weeks that an Israeli assault on Rafah, which borders Egypt near the main aid entry point, would cripple humanitarian operations and cause a disastrous surge in civilian casualties.
More than 1.4 million Palestinians have been sheltering in Rafah after fleeing the Israeli military's bombardments in other parts of the enclave. Considered the last refuge in the Gaza Strip, the evacuations are forcing people to return north to areas devastated by previous attacks.
People have already been displaced multiple times and there are few places left in the embattled Strip to move to. Those fleeing fighting earlier this week erected new tent camps in the city of Khan Younis, which was half destroyed in an earlier Israeli offensive.
Source: Qatar Tribune
