Satellite photos show Rafah emptying as Israeli forces move in on southern Gaza city
Pictures taken on May 8 display large patches of sand in two areas that were crowded with tents three days earlier; IDF says 950,000 have fled city under partial evacuation order
Newly released satellite photos reviewed by the Associated Press show a large exodus of Palestinians from the southernmost Gaza city of Rafah earlier this month.
The photos taken three days apart — first on May 5 and then on May 8 — show the change on the ground after Israel issued its first evacuation order for the city on May 6.
They show that crowded tent camps in the central and northwest regions of the city grew sparse within days of the order, though only neighborhoods in the east of the city had been ordered to evacuate.
One pair of before-and-after photos shows an area near the Tel al-Sultan refugee camp west of Rafah, adjacent to the humanitarian zone set up by the Israeli military.
In the three days between the photos, at least half of the hundreds of tents cramming the area disappeared, likely from Palestinians packing up and departing.
The other pair of photos shows the central Shabourah neighborhood of Rafah city. Tents packing city streets give way to sandy patches.
Before the evacuation orders, some 1.3 million Palestinians — many already displaced from other parts of Gaza — had taken shelter there, according to the UN.
It was unclear where all the Palestinians packing up their tents and fleeing Rafah are going. Rights groups say there is nowhere in Gaza with nearly enough food, water or tents for the newly displaced masses.
Israel has advised civilians to go to a humanitarian zone in the al-Mawasi area northwest of Rafah, and recently announced that the zone had been expanded to accommodate for the expected influx.
Palestinian are also concentrated in areas of central Gaza where Israeli ground forces have not yet operated.
The Israeli military estimated Monday that some 950,000 Palestinians had evacuated the Rafah area in the southern Gaza Strip, as ground forces operate in the eastern part of the city.
Some 300,000 to 400,000 civilians remain in Rafah, mostly in the coastal area and some parts of the center of the city, according to information seen by The Times of Israel.
Israel has so far classified its operations in the city as limited in scope, a claim the US has echoed. Currently, the IDF has not pushed further than the Brazil neighborhood of eastern Rafah, leaving most of the city under Hamas control.
But Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director for Human Rights Watch, said the mass displacement showed a different reality on the ground.
“We have a situation today where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have again been displaced from their homes, terrified, having no place to go,” he said.
Israel’s military said Monday the war would likely last another six months.
The statement came as ceasefire talks seemed frozen. The latest round of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas over a deal to halt fighting in the Strip and free the hostages appeared to break up with no discernible progress, as the terror group said it had no intention of budging from a proposal already rejected by Israel.
War broke out between Israel and Hamas following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which saw terrorists kill some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnap 252, many of whom remain hostage in Gaza.
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
