‘Wherever we go, there’s no safety’: Fearing wider ground op, some Gazans leave Rafah

Dozens of Palestinians leave Strip’s southern city ahead of expected military offensive by Israel to dismantle Hamas’s remaining operational battalions

People ride in a cart pulled by a tractor past the rubble of a destroyed building and a mosque minaret in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on February 14, 2024 (MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)
People ride in a cart pulled by a tractor past the rubble of a destroyed building and a mosque minaret in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on February 14, 2024 (MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)

Nahla Jarwan fled her home in central Gaza to seek refuge in Rafah — like more than 1 million other Palestinians escaping Israel’s military offensive against Hamas.

Now, as Rafah is hit by Israeli shelling as the operation widens, Jarwan said she is going back to an area she fled, even though nowhere is safe.

She is one of dozens of people who residents said were leaving Rafah on Tuesday after Israeli shelling and air strikes in recent days.

“I fled Al-Maghazi, came to Rafah, and here I am, returning to Al-Maghazi,” said Jarwan, referring to the town from which she fled earlier in the war.

“Last night in Rafah was very tough. We’re going back to Al-Maghazi out of fear — displaced from one area to another; hopefully Al-Maghazi area would be safe, God willing.”

“Wherever we go, there is no safety,” she said.

Palestinians mourn relatives killed in the Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip at a hospital morgue in Rafah, Feb. 12, 2024 (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Describing Rafah as Hamas’s “last bastion,” Israel plans to expand its offensive there to dismantle the terror group behind the devastating October 7 assault on southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and over 250 abducted.

For Palestinians, Rafah, at the southern end of Gaza, has provided sanctuary from an Israeli offensive that has killed more than 28,000 people, according to figures by Hamas health authorities in the Strip which cannot be independently verified, and which Israel says include at least 10,000 terror operatives.

The UN says there are nearly 1.5 million people in Rafah, six times the population compared to before October 7, and a spiraling humanitarian crisis.

Palestinian children carry food cooked by a charity kitchen amid shortages of food supplies in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on February 13, 2024. (MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has said it has ordered the army to develop a plan to evacuate the city, prior to a military incursion.

‘Tired of fleeing’

Sitting in a car crammed with possessions ready to depart, Jarwan said she hoped for a quick end to the war.

“We’re tired of fleeing from one city to another,” she said. “I’m hoping the world stands with us and looks at us with a kind, merciful eye.

“We’re tired — we’re always crying. Martyrs, shelling, destruction, death, starvation, thirst, there is no food.”

Palestinians fleeing the Israeli offensive on Khan Younis arrive at Rafah, Gaza Strip, Feb. 14, 2024. AP Photo/Hatem Ali)

US President Joe Biden has told Netanyahu that Israel should not proceed with an operation in Rafah without a plan to ensure the safety of people sheltering there.

Aid officials and foreign governments say there is nowhere for the population to go. Egypt has said it will not allow an exodus of Palestinian refugees to cross into its territory.

Momen Shbair said he would return to Khan Younis, about eight kilometers (five miles) away, after what he also described as a tough night in Rafah.

“We’re lost. We don’t know where to go. I pray that the whole world pressures Israel to end the war,” he said, driving a donkey cart along a sand road by the sea.

“We’re tired (of going) from one place to another.”

Israel has vowed the war will not end before Hamas is dismantled and some 130 hostages still held by the terrorists are returned. It says it seeks to avoid harm to civilians, but that Hamas fights while using innocents as human shields.

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