The Israeli army began this Monday to evacuate the civilian population from the east of Rafah, a city in the south of the Gaza Strip, in the face of a possible ground operation. «The estimate is about 100,000 people. “This is a limited scope operation,” said a military spokesman.
Rafah is the only large town in Gaza that has not been invaded by Israeli troops. Most of the inhabitants are displaced people who fled fighting in other areas of the Strip. According to the World Health Organization, around 1.2 million people live there.
“The army encourages residents of eastern Rafah to move to the expanded humanitarian zones,” said a statement from the Israeli army. Posters have been distributed and media announcements have been made urging evacuation. There have even been people who have received voice messages on their phones inviting them to leave and text messages with a map telling them where to go.
In its statement, the army declared that it had “expanded the humanitarian zone to Al Mawasi”, a city located on the coast about ten kilometers from Rafah. At this point, as they reported, they have installed “hospitals and tents, and there is a growing volume of food, water, medicine and other items,” they indicated in their letter.
Last Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in favor of a truce to achieve the release of the hostages. However, he assured that the war against Hamas would continue and that the invasion of Rafah would take place. If this operation is confirmed, the Hebrew leader would be ignoring the insistent calls from the international community, including those from the United States, not to authorize a land incursion that would add many more deaths to the conflict and would entail the massive displacement of Gazans living in the area. .
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