2024-05-11 19:18:45
Last updated 1 hour ago
The Israeli military on Saturday expanded the scope of the evacuation of the area east of Rafah, which it began earlier this week, calling on residents of other parts of the city to leave “immediately.” .
The Israeli army said in a post on the site direct to the city of Rafah.
The Israeli army added that its soldiers affiliated with the Givati Brigade were also capable of “destroying infrastructure” of Hamas in this area.
Israeli tanks took control of the main street separating east and west Rafah on Friday, sealing off an area in the eastern part of the city.
The semi-official Egyptian news channel in Cairo cited unnamed sources as saying that Egypt had agreed with Israel to increase the number of Egyptian security personnel in the border area in order to secure it, as part of the military operation launched by Israel east of the border. Palestinian town of Rafah, adjacent to the Egyptian border.
Sources from the news channel, funded by the Egyptian government, did not specify the nature and extent of these reinforcements or the type of mechanisms that will accompany the security elements.
Meanwhile, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, released a video clip on Saturday of a man held hostage in the Gaza Strip, who appeared to be alive.
The video was 11 seconds long and was accompanied by text in Arabic and Hebrew saying: “Time is running out. »
Comment on the photo, A photo showing the scene in the town of Rafah following its evacuation
“There is no place left to go following Rafah, there is no one left but Egypt. »
An Israeli army spokesperson on the site immediately west of Gaza City.
The Israel Defense Forces dropped leaflets calling on residents and displaced people to evacuate new areas of central Rafah, away from the eastern part of the border town.
The army also called on Palestinians in several areas of the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah to evacuate and move to the Al-Mawasi area, which the army considers a safe humanitarian zone. .
The army said in a statement: “So far, around 300,000 people have been displaced to the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone.”
Among the areas that received evacuation instructions this morning are Rafah, Al-Shaboura, the administrative district, Al-Jeneina neighborhood and Khirbet Al-Adas, which are neighborhoods classified as dangerous combat zones.
A resident of Rafah told the BBC: “I received a message on my mobile phone asking me to evacuate Rafah immediately and demanding that I evacuate the residential community. We don’t know where to go.
He added to the “Gaza Today” program broadcast on BBC Arabic Radio: “We were initially displaced from Jabalia. I don’t have the money to return to Khan Yunis. Some neighbors asked us to come and rent accommodation for a very low price. rent, but I don’t even have the money to rent a car.
While another told Gaza Today: “There is nowhere left to go. There is no place left following Rafah but Egypt, and that is called displacement… and no one has yet been able to stop this genocide once morest the Palestinian people, especially the citizens from the Gaza Strip. »
He went on to say, “I took a small shoulder bag with me in addition to the mattress I sleep on. It’s all my stuff.”
One of the displaced women expressed to the BBC her dissatisfaction with living conditions in the Gaza Strip, saying there is no safe place in the strip.
She added: “We are displaced for the third time. No one has ever experienced what we have been experiencing for months. We live in a state of constant fear and terror… They force us to live in overcrowded places where there are not many people, no room to pitch a tent.
Warnings of food shortage in Gaza
Separately, United Nations humanitarian organizations said there would be a shortage of food in southern Gaza on Saturday, shortly following the Rafah and Kerem Shalom border crossings were closed.
For its part, Hamas warned in a statement once morest the continued control by the Israeli army of the Rafah crossing and its closure for the fifth consecutive day, “which disrupted the arrival of humanitarian and medical aid » to the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip.
The movement said this “portends a humanitarian catastrophe and a worsening state of famine throughout the besieged Gaza Strip,” accusing the Israeli army of committing “the crime of genocide, famine war and of ethnic cleansing” and holding her responsible.
Despite heavy U.S. pressure from Washington on Israel and tension expressed by Gaza residents and humanitarian organizations, Israel said it would continue its incursion into Rafah, home to a million displaced people seeking refuge during the war. which lasts. it lasts seven months.
image source, EPA
Comment on the photo, Photos show Israeli tanks on Gaza border
Israel says it cannot win the war without uprooting hundreds of Hamas fighters, who it says are stationed in Rafah.
US President Joe Biden’s administration said on Friday that Israel’s use of US-supplied weapons might be considered a violation of international humanitarian law during the Gaza war, in the most critical criticism that Israel has faced since the start of the war. war.
The war in Gaza began on October 7, when Hamas carried out a surprise attack in southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, and during which the movement took 250 hostages, according to official Israeli sources.
Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip resulted in the deaths of approximately 35,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Strip’s Ministry of Health.
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