Israel bombed this Friday Rafah, the city in the southern Gaza Strip where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians took refuge, and It earned criticism from US President Joe Biden, who spoke of an “excessive” operation.
(Also read: Netanyahu urges military pressure for 'total victory' in Gaza and not succumbing to Hamas)
Israel began a military offensive against the Strip on October 7in response to an attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on its territory.
The head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, who ended a regional tour on Thursday aimed at promoting a truce, urged Israel to “protect” civilians in its operations in Gaza.
Initially, Israeli forces concentrated their operations in Gaza Cityin the north of the Strip, and then moved towards Khan Yunis, further south.
But on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered an offensive to be prepared in Rafah, a town located next to the closed border with Egypt.
(Also read: Five kilometers of clothing is equivalent to the number of children killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict)
The city is currently populated by 1.3 million people, mostly displaced people who fled from other areas of the Strip due to the fighting and who now spend their days with fear in their bodies. refugees in tents and huts built with sheets, metal poles and branches.
This is the case of Adel Al Hajj, who arrived in Rafah from the Al Shati camp in Gaza City and who claims to fear “an invasion” by the Israeli military that could result in “massacres.”
“If Rafah is attacked, there will be massacres and genocide. I don't know if we will be able to flee to Egypt or if the massacres will reach us,” said Um Ahmed al-Burai, a 59-year-old Palestinian, also from Al Shati.
Before reaching Rafah, he passed through Khan Yunis and Jirbet Al Adas. On Thursday, Washington warned that Rafah could be the scene of a humanitarian “disaster” and assured that it would not support an operation “without planning and without reflection” regarding civilians.
“My opinion is that the response in Gaza, in the Gaza Strip, has been excessive,” declared US President Joe Biden, in an unusual criticism of Israel, a close ally of Washington.
“There are many innocent people going hungry, many innocent people having a hard time and dying, and this has to stop,” he said.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also said he was “alarmed” by this operation, which would “exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare.”
Men walk through Rafah after the bombings.
Run away to the sea
Early Friday morning, several witnesses reported Israeli bombings in central and southern Gaza. “We heard the sound of a huge explosion near our house (…) We found two dead children in the street“said Jaber Al Bardini, a 60-year-old resident of Rafah.
“Yeah [Israel] perform an attack [terrestre] against Rafah, we will die in our homes. We have no choice, we have nowhere to go,” he added. According to an employee of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), who asked to remain anonymous, there are people from Rafah who are moving towards the sea because “they think that an eventual ground operation” will begin near the Israeli border.
The war broke out on October 7 when Islamist militants killed more than 1,160 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250 in an attack in southern Israel, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli data.
Among the dead there are more than 300 soldiers. A week-long truce at the end of November allowed the exchange of a hundred hostages for Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel. An estimated 132 remain captive in Gaza, 29 of them presumed dead.
In Israeli bombings and retaliatory operations in Gaza, 27,940 people died, mostly women, children and adolescents, according to Hamas, an organization classified as terrorist by the European Union and the United States.
ANA MARÍA RODRÍGUEZ BRAZÓN
TIME CORRESPONDENT
CARACAS
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