Nearly half of Rafah's population was displaced from the center of the city of Rafah, south of Gaza, to the cities of Deir al-Balah in the central region and Khan Yunis, west of the Gaza Strip, in a journey of humiliation, oppression and misery to escape the massacres of the occupation, after the Israeli army forces warned them to evacuate areas in the city to expand their ground military operations.

It is noteworthy that more than 1.4 million Palestinian citizens, or half of the population of Gaza, have taken refuge in Rafah, after fleeing Israeli attacks in other places, especially the central and northern Gaza Strip, over the past seven months.

Eyewitnesses confirmed to Al-Quds that the Israeli army called on the residents of the neighborhoods in the heart of the city of Rafah, by throwing thousands of leaflets in its sky, to flee immediately, thereby expanding its operations that began Monday, east of the city, regardless of international warnings rejecting the expansion of ground military operations. In Rafah.

One of the eyewitnesses, Dr. Ghada Kuhail, 28 years old, who was displaced for the fourth time after Gaza, Khan Yunis, and Rafah, explained: Thousands of displaced people re-set their tents in coastal areas, on dirt roads, and in the rare empty spaces they reached in the absence of any shelter for them.

Kahil added: Despite displacement, oppression, and fear of the unknown, we were hit by a sandstorm and strong winds, which hit us violently, as some of the displaced people’s tents were uprooted.

This comes in light of the lack of cars and trucks transporting the displaced from the center of Rafah, forcing them to use carts drawn by horses and donkeys and to walk on foot, so that they can displace with the lack of appropriate means of transportation due to the insufficient availability of fuel in the Strip.

Muhammad Moin, 36 years old, a displaced person from Rafah in the Al-Zawaida area, said: The viewer of Al-Bahr Street, west of Rafah, sees large numbers of displaced children and women walking on foot, over rugged terrain, distances of up to 10 kilometers, carrying bedding, blankets, and some food, heading to the areas of displacement. Al-Jadida, in the center and west of the Gaza Strip, in search of a safer place.

Businessman Jamil Abd Rabbo (58 years old), a displaced resident of Ezbet Abd Rabbo in Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip, who settled with his family, numbering more than 50 people, who transported him via several trucks to Rafah, said: Neither a tent nor 5 tents are enough for us. I rented vacant land in the Deir al-Balah area.

We set up tents and sat waiting for our fate, which God had written for us in this war.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army intensified the escalation of its ground and air attacks, on Saturday, in the city of Rafah and several areas in Gaza City, its north and the center of the Gaza Strip, and carried out a series of violent raids that resulted in a number of martyrs and wounded, in addition to the destruction of homes and streets.

As for the citizen Samah Qudayh, 33 years old, who was forced to flee again from Abasan al-Kabira after the destruction of her house, then to the Nuseirat camp in the middle, then to Rafah, then to the beach of Khan Yunis, she said in a voice close to screaming: Where will we go? The sea is in front of us and the Jews are behind us. God is sufficient for us, and He is the best disposer of affairs. Every time they displace us and send us away to search for a new shelter, even though we do not have the means of transport and communication... we are tired, by God.

Nidal Khadra, a political analyst, said: The Israeli army aims to evacuate Rafah to carry out its ground operation, without causing massive loss of life, after the mobilization of thousands of displaced people from Rafah in the Al-Mawasi area.

Khadra added: The occupation aims to double the suffering of the displaced by placing them in the Al-Mawasi area, located on the coastal strip of the Mediterranean Sea, extending over a distance of 12 kilometers and one kilometer deep, from Deir Al-Balah in the north, passing through Khan Yunis Governorate in the south, and up to Rafah Governorate in the far south of the Strip, which are areas Empty sand filled with greenhouses, not suitable for habitation because it lacks infrastructure, sewage networks, and electricity lines, apart from communications networks and the Internet.