"We are afraid that Rafah will become like Khan Younis, all we can do is pray. And hope that an agreement is reached."
After two nights of Israeli air attacks in the city on the border with Egypt, displaced people are gripped by desperation.
They have nowhere else to go and now, while the Jewish State's tanks are one step away, they fear a ground operation even in that last strip of land where they had sought refuge.
Ready to escape once again: "I found some petrol at 180 shekels (45 euros) per litre. I think I have two liters in the tank: enough, in case of extreme necessity, to bring my family to safety up to Deir el-Balah. As long as the foreseeable traffic jams allow us", says a man with a blank look.
After four months of war, Rafah is perhaps the last of the cities in the Strip which, despite the invasion of over a million displaced people, still has the appearance of an urban centre.
Elsewhere in the Palestinian enclave you can mostly see ruined buildings and streets full of rubble while until now the town had been saved.
"I fear - says Yasser Abu Hatla, a 52-year-old trader and shop owner - that the fate of Rafah will be similar to that of Khan Yunis", which has been the scene of a no-holds-barred war between the army and Hamas forces for weeks.
"That Rafah is still standing is a true miracle - echoes Assad, 5 children, who has a petrol pump -. We still have hope that this nightmare will end, that Israel and Hamas will reach a 'hudna' (a ceasefire ) before the army enters Rafah. All we have to do is pray."
Located along the border with Egypt, Rafah is considered by Israel as an important strategic objective and dramatic days are being experienced in the city, with displaced people camped in public spaces and on the seashore, in the Moassi area, while attacks follow one another. attacks by the Israeli air force which in the last two nights have caused 14 deaths.
Abu Hatla is afraid that the situation will worsen.
He has a very large family and a comfortable house east of Rafah, where he was born: "At the moment I am planning an emergency escape. I have prepared a bag with the most important documents. The thought that my house could be destroyed, to be forced to take refuge in a tent west of Rafah", he says, pointing the finger at Hamas which has caused, in his opinion, "suffering and destruction" in the Strip.
Even Assad Hijazi now feels like he's in deep trouble.
"We don't know where to go. There are no safe places anymore. I don't see why Israel should enter Rafah, it's not a Hamas city. They've never won elections here."
In his tent set up on a sidewalk in the Saudi neighborhood, Muhammad Shabana, a 46-year-old refugee, also experiences days of desolation.
In recent weeks he has wandered around temporary asylums in Shati, Nusseirat, Khan Yunis and arrived in Rafah with nothing left.
He feels like he has his back against the wall: "We spent whole days discussing the response to the ceasefire agreement, without understanding that for us, under the tents, every minute is as long as a year."
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