Gaza: Netanyahu orders evacuation of Rafah in preparation for ground invasion

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered troops to evacuate the population of Rafah ahead of an expected invasion of the Gaza town.
Netanyahu made the announcement on Friday following international criticism of Israel’s plan to invade the crowded town on Egypt’s border.

Israel says Rafah is the last remaining Hamas stronghold and it needs to send in troops to complete its war plan against them.
More than half of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million people have fled to Rafah, heeding Israeli evacuation orders ahead of the military’s expanding ground offensive.

Before the war, the city’s population was around 280,000. Conditions are becoming increasingly desperate, with people sheltering in makeshift camps – tents built with flimsy materials – and in overcrowded apartment buildings, according to Human Rights Watch.
Nadia Hardman, a refugee, and migrant rights researcher at the NGO said: “Forcing the over one million displaced Palestinians in Rafah to again evacuate without a safe place to go would be unlawful and would have catastrophic consequences. “There is nowhere safe to go in Gaza. The international community should take action to prevent fort.

“We are exhausted. Seriously, we are exhausted. Israel can do whatever it wants. I am sitting in my tent. I will die in my tent,” said Jihan al-Hawajri, who fled multiple times from the far north down the length of the Gaza Strip and now lives with 30 relatives in a tent. UN officials warn that an attack on Rafah will be catastrophic, with more than 600,000 children there in the path of an assault. Medical charity Doctors Without Borders warned the offensive in Rafah would be “a dramatic escalation in this ongoing massacre”.

“There is no place that is safe in Gaza and no way for people to leave,” the charity said in a statement. Netanyahu said a “massive operation” is needed in Rafah and asked security officials to present a “double plan” that would include the evacuation of civilians and a military operation to “collapse” remaining Hamas militant units. However, it is unclear where Palestinians have left to run, and even Israel’s greatest ally, the US, has been critical of the imminent assault.

State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters on Thursday that to “conduct such an operation right now with no planning and little thought in an area where there is sheltering of a million people would be a disaster,” adding: “This is not something that we’d support.” Even in areas of refuge, such as Rafah, Israel routinely launches air strikes against what it says are Hamas targets. Evacuation orders now cover most of the besieged enclave.