A fence erected by the Egyptian army on the border with Gaza/social networks
The tent of the Abu Mustafa family stands in front of the high concrete and metal fence that separates Gaza from Egypt in Rafah, the last relatively safe place in the strip destroyed by the war between Israel and Hamas - but one that has been marked as the next target of the IDF.
The family is one of more than a million Palestinians who are now huddled in the Rafah area, and fear that there is nowhere left for them to escape in the dense strip, which has mostly turned into ruined cities and where the fighting is still raging. "Every day we are on the run.
The displacement is difficult because I have two daughters with disabilities.
I can't carry them.
I don't have a car or a cart," said Lila Abu Mustafa. "If there is another displacement, I will not move.
" The desert on the Egyptian border, but aid agencies say that any attack on the city would be catastrophic, while the rest of the world warns of serious consequences.
"If there is another displacement, I will not move."
The Abu Mustafa family near the fence with Egypt/Reuters
The war began on October 7, when Hamas raided settlements near the fence, murdered 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages.
More than 130 of them are still being held in Gaza, and according to estimates, several dozen of them are no longer alive.
Four months later, Gaza is devastated.
Under massive daily bombardment, the IDF forces took control of most of the Gaza Strip and destroyed homes, public buildings and infrastructure through airstrikes, artillery fire and controlled explosions. The Palestinian health authorities, controlled by Hamas, reported more than 28 thousand deaths in the war, about 70% Among them are women and children, although they do not specify how many of the dead are armed.
According to the IDF, a significant portion of the victims are members of Hamas and other terrorist organizations, which operate from among the civilian population and endanger it.
According to various data, more than 85% of the residents of the Gaza Strip have lost their homes, and according to the UN, almost one in ten children under the age of five suffers from severe malnutrition.
Israel says that they have two main objectives in the operation - the defeat of Hamas and the return of the abductees - but the international credit , especially from the United States, is running out. All this in light of an increasingly escalating protest from the families of the abductees, who believe that the government has not done enough to reach a new deal with Hamas.
Last week, the government rejected Hamas's counter-offer, which demands a cessation of hostilities and other conditions it refuses Israel Defense sources in Egypt said that further talks on a ceasefire are being prepared for Tuesday, with the participation of senior officials from Qatar and the United States as well as Israeli and Palestinian delegations.
More in Walla!
12 days after she begged for help: 6-year-old Hind's body was found in Gaza
To the full article
The world is being warned of a heavy humanitarian disaster.
Tents in Rafah against the background of the Mitmar smoke from Khan Yunis, Hayom/Reuters
A senior Hamas official threatened today that any ground action by Israel in Rafah would lead to the collapse of the talks, while the Wall Street Journal reported that Egypt warned the organization that it had two weeks left to flex before the attack was launched.
Cairo fears an influx of Palestinian refugees to the Sinai Peninsula from Rafah, and has thickened the security fence at the border in recent weeks.
Two security sources told Reuters on Friday that in the past two weeks Cairo had deployed 40 tanks and APCs in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, to strengthen the defense of the border.
At the same time, Egypt also warned that the peace agreement with Israel, signed in 1979, would be suspended if it did invade Rafah , according to two Egyptian sources and a Western diplomat who spoke to the AP news agency. Also Jordan and the United Arab Emirates - which have peace agreements with Israel - as well as countries that do not have official diplomatic relations with Jerusalem, led by Saudi Arabia, strongly warned against an attack on Rafah But
even before the ground operation, the Air Force increased its attacks in the southern city. Yesterday, a senior Hamas police officer in the city was killed in a vehicle attack, along with two other people.
"I can't describe how we feel."
IDPs in Rafah/Reuters
While refusing to be interviewed by Israeli media, Netanyahu today conducted another round of interviews with the American media.
He told the ABC network that the IDF will operate in Rafah, but added that Israel is formulating a "detailed plan" to evacuate civilians.
"We are going to do it.
We are going after the remaining terrorist battalions of Hamas in Rafah," said Netanyahu, who claimed that those who oppose the operation in the southern city, "don't want Israel to win." "We are going to do it while providing safe passage for the civilian population.
" "A large-scale Israeli attack in Rafah will lead to an unjustified humanitarian catastrophe."
Back at the Abu Mustafa family, they hung their laundry on the wire fence on the border with Egypt. They cook the little food they managed to collect in empty cans on a fire in the sand.
Mariam, who escaped From Gaza City at the beginning of the war with her three children aged nine, seven and five, she said that the fear of an attack on Rafah is the topic of every conversation in the crowded city.
"I can't describe how we feel.
There is a mess in my head.
My children ask me all the time when Israel will invade Rafah and where we will go and if we die.
And I don't have the answers," she said.
More on the same topic:
Rafih
Gaza war
Hamas
Egypt