Hundreds of thousands of fleeing Gazaners searched for protection on Thursday in one of the greatest mass shifts in the war when the Israeli armed forces entered the ruins of the city of Rafah, the part of a newly announced “security zone” that intends them.
One day after she had explained her intention to catch large parts of the overcrowded enclave, the Israeli forces pushed into the city on the southern edge of Gaza, which had served as the last refuge for people who fled other areas for a large part of the war.
The Gaza Ministry of Health reported on at least 97 people who have been killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, including at least 20 in an air raid at dawn in the Shuja’iyya suburb of the city of Gaza.
Later on Thursday, an Israeli air raid killed at least 27 Palestinians, including women and children, in a school building that served as protection for families in Gaza city, the local health authorities said.
According to doctors, three rockets struck the school building of the Al-Arqam in Tuffah in the city of Gaza, and the Israeli military said that a command center was used by militants to plan and carry out attacks against Israeli civilians and army forces. It did not provide any evidence.
Rafah “is gone, it is wiped out.”
“They knock down what is left of houses and property,” said the man who had refused to be identified for fear of effects.
After a strike in Khan Younis killed several people, Adel Abu Fakher checked the damage to his tent.
“For us there is something left? There is nothing left for us. We are killed in sleeping,” he said.
The attack on Rafah’s recording is a great escalation in the war that Israel restarted last month after effectively giving up an armistice since January.
The Gazans fear permanent shift
Israel has not shown its long -term goals for the security zone that its troops now capture. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that troops took an area, which he called “Morag axis”, an indication of an abandoned former Israeli settlement between Rafah and Khan Younis.
The Gazans, who had returned to the ruins during the armistice, were now instructed to flee the northern and southern edges of the strip.
They fear that Israel’s intention is to make these areas indefinitely and to leave many hundreds of thousands of people in one of the poorest and overcrowded areas of the earth permanently. The security zone includes some of the last agricultural land and critical water infrastructure in Gaza.
Since the first phase of the ceasefire at the beginning of March without consent to extend Israel has imposed a total blockade for all goods that reach 2.3 million inhabitants of Gaza, and after weeks of relative calm after weeks are described relatively calmly as humanitarian disaster after weeks.
Israel’s declared goal since the beginning of the war was the destruction of the militant group of Hamas, which ran Gaza for almost two decades.
However, since no efforts were made to found an alternative administration, the police led by Hamas returned to the street during the armistice. The fighters still hold 59 dead and living hostages, who, according to Israel, have to be handed over to extend the armistice. Hamas says that it will only free her under a deal that ends the war.
The war began on October 7, 2023 with an attack on the Israeli communities led by Hamas, with armed men killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli. According to Israel’s retaliation campaign, the health authorities of the GAZA health authorities have so far killed more than 50,000 Palestinians.
Israeli leaders say that they were encouraged against Hamas by signs of a protest in Gaza, with hundreds of people on Wednesday in the north -Gaza appearance of Beit Lahiya against war and demanded the Hamas power of power. Hamas calls the protesting employees and says Israel is behind them.
Most of Rafah residents were ordered for evacuation
Rafah’s inhabitants said the majority of the local population had been followed by Israel’s command when Israeli strikes were converted there. But a strike on the main street between Khan Younis and Rafah stopped most of the movements between the two cities.
The movement of people and traffic along the western coastal road near Morag was also limited by bombing, the residents said.
“Others stayed because they didn’t know where to go or were fed up with being driven out several times. We fear that they may be killed or arrested at best,” said Basem, a resident of Rafah who refused to give a second name.
Israeli air strikes in the Gaza damaged the Nasser Hospital and killed at least 65 people in 24-hour period, said the Palestinian health authorities. The continued attacks have caused some aid organizations to reduce their footprint in the region.
The markets have emptied and the prices for basic needs rose under the overall Israeli blockage of food, medicine and fuel.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health, which is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, but has a nominal authority for hospitals in Gaza, said that the entire Gaza health system was exposed to the risk of a collapse.
