Israel announces ground attacks on Rafah, last refuge for more than a million people in Gaza

“We will also reach Rafah.” In recent hours, Israel's Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, has cleared up possible doubts about the intentions of his army. From his announcement it is clear that they are determined to attack and deploy to the last inch of Gaza. Meanwhile, there are no concrete announcements by any of the parties in the conflict that bring any closer to a ceasefire. Rafah, at the southern end of the Palestinian enclave and bordering Egypt, has become a buffer for more than a million people fleeing Israeli attacks. The displaced do not stop arriving there in an incessant trickle in the midst of a desperate flight, as Israel has increased military pressure on neighboring Khan Yunis, the United Nations warns.

In the midst of this exodus, “Rafah is a pressure cooker of desperation and we fear what may come next,” Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the United Nations humanitarian affairs office, warned this Friday, referring to the very serious consequences. that land military operations can extend to the south. Fear is growing among the population as a result of what was announced in recent hours by the Israeli authorities. “In every corner of Rafah you can find internally displaced people sleeping on the streets, unprotected, suffering from the harsh rain and cold. We can't take it anymore, we are very tired,” Karim, an NGO employee who prefers that, for security reasons, no more data about him be published through messages.

“I want to insist on our deep concern about the escalation of hostilities in Khan Younis, which has led to an increase in the number of internally displaced people seeking refuge in Rafah in recent days,” Laerke warned from Geneva in statements collected by the agency. Reuters. The possible arrival of the tanks and infantry of the Israeli troops in Rafah is considered the final straw for a population of more than one million displaced people who cannot escape further down, where they run into the border wall with Egypt. “We are very afraid of that happening. It would be something horrible for us, I don't even want to think what could happen to us if they enter Rafah. “It could be a massacre.” They survive, beaten by four months of war, without a roof under which to find shelter, with the health system collapsed, with hardly any food or water, without electricity or fuel and at the expense of the rigor of winter.

Late on Thursday, Yoav Gallant announced in a statement that his troops were reaching the objectives set in Khan Yunis, where the ground operation has been focused for weeks, and where the Hamas infrastructure is considered dismantled. In any case, Israel has still not captured or announced the death of any of the highest commanding officers of the Islamist network, which would have its main bastion in that town. “We are carrying out our missions in Khan Yunis and we will also reach Rafah to eliminate the terrorists who threaten us,” the minister said.

Karim, in his thirties, anguishedly recounts how, in addition to his two daughters, they are expecting the birth of a son in two months. “My wife is in her seventh month of pregnancy. We can't even find clothes for the baby. “I have been looking for it for more than a month in the markets, but nothing.” He lives under uncertainty and permanent fear that something could happen to his daughters, his wife, his sister, his parents… “We don't want to be stripped naked and walk through the streets without clothes,” he comments, referring to scenes recorded on video by the Israeli military of mass arrests in other areas of Gaza in which the population was forced to strip to their underwear. “This is not humane. We are human beings like the rest of the world, we have rights, we have dignity. This is incredible,” he adds, indignant at what he considers the passivity of the international community.

Exhausted, hungry, traumatized

Rafah represents the last plot of land in which the population can take refuge, although bombing from the air by the Israeli army also reaches there. More than half of the enclave's population, which amounts to 2.3 million inhabitants, is gathered in that area of ​​Gaza. The army has been sweeping them from the northern area downwards since the war began on October 7, 2023, especially since it launched the military ground operation on the 27th of that same month. In recent hours, fighting has continued throughout the Strip and the Israeli army claimed to have killed more than 20 “terrorists”, as well as destroyed its infrastructure and intercepted weapons.

“The population is enduring unimaginable circumstances. They are exhausted, hungry and traumatized. Families have lost everything and faced displacement repeatedly. Thousands of people lack adequate shelters against the cold and rain, while diseases take hold,” the World Health Organization (WHO) denounced this Friday through the social network X (formerly Twitter). “More than 100,000 Gazans are dead, injured or missing and presumed dead,” the director of that UN agency, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, estimated on Thursday. That figure includes the more than 27,000 people that the authorities of the Strip, governed by Hamas, consider dead.

“I don't know what can happen to me and my family. I'm very afraid of losing any of them. If I had the opportunity to leave Gaza with my family members, I would take it without thinking about it,” says Karim.

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