UNRWA, the United Nations agency that aids Palestinians, said that about 300,000 people had fled from Rafah over the past week after the Israeli government issued new evacuation orders in Rafah and elsewhere in Gaza.
Israel stepped up bombardment and fighting continued in and around the city since Israel ordered new evacuations in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, forcing tens of thousands more people to leave the city. Dozens have been killed by Israeli strikes in Rafah since Monday, health officials say.
Israeli forces seized control of the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing as it expanded its military operation deeper into Gaza despite global backlash and growing pressure from its closest ally the United States.
The Israeli military claims carrying out “precise operations in specific areas of eastern Rafah” targeting Hamas. However, the majority of the more than 35,000 Palestinians reported killed in Gaza have been women and children, according to local health officials.
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA) criticized “forced and inhumane displacement of Palestinians.”
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini expressed concerns over the persistent displacement of Palestinians from their homes. “The Israeli authorities continue to issue forced displacement orders also known as ‘evacuation orders’. This is forcing people in Rafah to flee anywhere and everywhere” since October 2023, Philippe Lazzarini said on X. “The claim of ‘safe zones’ is false and misleading. No place is safe in Gaza. Period,” he added.
‘Nowhere safe to go’ for Palestinians
As many as 300,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah, leaving them with “nowhere safe to go”, according to the UNRWA.
“Life in Rafah right now is a nightmare. There is bombing and shelling constantly, nearly every 10 minutes,” says Moses Kondowe, team leader for Gaza for Project Hope, which is working to move its field clinic in Rafah to Khan Younis. “Thousands of people are still stuck here with nowhere to go,” Kondowe says.
Rafah, the city in the enclave’s southernmost tip, is where more than a million displaced Gazans had sought shelter from Israeli bombardments over the past seven months.
“Do we wait until we all die on top of each other? So we have decided to leave,” Rafah resident Hanan al-Satari said as people rushed to load mattresses, water and other belongings onto vehicles. “The Israeli army does not have a safe area in Gaza. They target everything,” said Abu Yusuf al-Deiri, another citizen displaced earlier from Gaza City.
Israeli tanks have also rolled into Jabalia, while multiple strikes killed dozens of people in Beit Lahiya and Rafah. Jabalia is the biggest of Gaza’s eight refugee camps and is home to more than 100,000 people.
More than 75% of the Gaza strip is now under Israel evacuation orders, including parts of the southern city of Rafah, according to the UN.
Aid agencies warn of catastrophic consequences of invading Rafah
The United Nations and aid agencies have condemned the Israeli forces for severing a crucial aid route by seizing the Gazan side of the Rafah border, warning that already scarce supplies will be further depleted in the enclave that is on the brink of famine.
United Nations agencies are likely to run out of food aid soon in southern Gaza, said Georgios Petropoulos, the head of the UN Humanitarian Agency (OCHA) in Gaza.
“The World Food Program and UNRWA will run out of food for distribution in the south by tomorrow. That means that people will be left only with the aid that has already been distributed in their shelters, in their homes, and on-site. As of today (May 10) we have 12 bakeries supported by humanitarian partners here in South Gaza,” Petropoulos said in a post on OCHA’s X account.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says it has started transferring the last 22 patients from a hospital in Rafah after the Israeli military ordered the immediate evacuation of further neighborhoods in the southern Gaza city.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said he was “deeply distressed by the fast deterioration in Gaza as Israeli forces intensify their air strikes” across Gaza.
Humanitarian agencies warned that no place was safe and that essential aid had nearly run out, almost a week after Israel captured and shut down the border crossing with Egypt.
Rafah borders Egypt near the main aid entry points. Israeli troops have captured the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing, forcing it to shut down. Egypt has refused to coordinate with Israel on the delivery of aid though the crossing because of “the unacceptable Israeli escalation.”
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri said Cairo would continue its mediation efforts between Israel and Hamas and urged the two sides to show the flexibility to reach a ceasefire deal.
UN chief urges ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza
The United Nations’ Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has renewed his call for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip. In a video address to international donors gathered in Kuwait on May 12, Guterres also called for “the unconditional release of all captives held by Hamas as well as an immediate surge in humanitarian aid” into Gaza.
“A ceasefire will only be the start,” he said in the video, cautioning that “it will be a long road back from the devastation and trauma of this war”.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell denounced forcing civilians into unsafe areas in Rafah, where Israel launched a ground attack. “Forcing civilians to evacuate Rafah to unsafe zones is intolerable. Israel is bound by international law to provide safety to civilians,” Borrell wrote on X. “We continue to urge Israel not to go ahead w/ a ground operation in Rafah. This would further exacerbate an already dire humanitarian crisis.”
Internationally mediated talks over a ceasefire and hostage release appeared to be at a standstill.
The Rafah invasion came just hours after Palestinians were celebrating the news that Hamas had accepted a ceasefire deal put forward by Egyptian and Qatari mediators. However, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the proposed agreement was “far from Israel’s essential demands.” Netanyahu vowed to continue fighting until victory in memory of those killed in the war.