Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians evacuate from Rafah to crowded areas in Khan Younis amid Israeli offensive

Waad Abu Zaher and her family moved on Wednesday from the Awda neighborhood in Rafah to Mawasi in Khan Younis, an area designated for “humanitarian services” by the Israeli military.

Relocating was difficult for Abu Zaher and for other families leaving Rafah in recent days, representing yet another forced displacement for some of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have fled the Occupation’s advance southward through their streets and neighborhoods.

As a preface to its ongoing offensive on Rafah, Israel issued an urgent evacuation order on Monday for households in several neighborhoods in eastern Rafah, telling residents to move to Mawasi, once an agricultural area. The Occupation also conducted heavy airstrikes across southern Gaza, particularly on eastern Rafah.

Sanaa Hamdouna, who was displaced from her home in Gaza City earlier in the war, told Mada Masr she hoped she would be able to return to her home rather than undergo yet another displacement, especially when the news broke on Monday night that a ceasefire agreement had been reached, with Hamas agreeing to the latest proposal. People celebrated in Rafah, said Hamdouna, although their relief was short-lived.

Israel soon said it did not consent to the proposal’s text and that it still intended to pursue its operation in Rafah, sending tanks into the area just hours after Hamas’ statement to take control of the Rafah border crossing.

Since Monday, around 80,000 people left Rafah, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) estimated on Thursday. Israeli airstrikes continued to target the evacuation zone on Thursday, leading to dozens of casualties, said Palestinian news reports. 

Abu Zaher told Mada Masr that after Monday’s evacuation order, the family grappled with fear of Israeli shelling during the late night hours, and also lived through the terror of the Occupation’s psychological warfare. She described the Israeli military projecting recorded sounds between residential buildings to lure civilians out of their homes, then targeting them with drones. The sounds ranged from that of a crying baby to women screaming for help, to crowd cheers and whistles. 

Two similar accounts were published by residents of Nuseirat who spoke to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor about an Israeli operation conducted in the camp in April.

Abu Zaher left her hometown in the Rimal neighborhood in northern Gaza earlier in the war, next, she moved to the Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of the strip, then to Khan Younis, then to Awda.

Moving back to Mawasi in Khan Younis, she and her family had no idea where to set up due to difficult conditions and overcrowding in the area.

They prepared to leave the city, taking apart the tent in which they had lived for months and packing their belongings. Reaching Mawasi was no easy feat for the family, given their sizable household of 25 individuals. Their possessions, acquired over months of displacement, included sheets, rugs, and cooking utensils. They eventually managed to secure transportation for around 600 shekels (US$150) to make the approximately 10-kilometer journey from Rafah to Khan Younis.

Fuel prices have soared since Israel began its Rafah operation on Monday. The military took control of both border crossings in the south, with clashes reported at the Karam Abu Salem crossing and Israeli tanks stationed at the Rafah border. Only one fuel truck has reportedly entered the strip since.

Akram Salman, a farmer from eastern Rafah who has now been displaced to Mawasi, said that heavy Israeli strikes prevented farmers from accessing their lands in eastern Rafah, thus barring them from harvesting the crops on which southern Gaza's population depends and exacerbating the famine.

Two more residents of Rafah, Jenin and Hatem, said that meat and sugar prices rose in the south as soon as Israel took the border crossing on Tuesday, as people anticipated the shortage and the Occupation’s aid obstruction.

“We saw exhaustion and grief on people’s faces as they walked carrying their young children and sheets, unsure of where to go next,” said Abu Zaher, describing the journey. “There’s chaos and congestion. Everyone is asking, ‘why are they confining us all in one place? Where can we go after that?’”

In the overcrowded designated “humanitarian zone,” Abu Zaher said people have erected tents between sewage flows and accumulated solid waste. 

“There’s no water in Khan Younis,” Abu Zaher said, unlike Rafah where water reaches homes twice a week. 

The displacement sites lack basic infrastructure, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OCHA) said in a report on Wednesday. The sites lack “adequate latrines, water points, drainage, or shelter,” OCHA said.

Hamdouna was also reluctant to leave and decided to stay at one of the UNRWA schools in western Rafah, saying, "in the school, we have walls that shield us from the sun, walls we can lean our backs against.