“It is not enough to put up tents!”, NGOs worry about the threat of an Israeli offensive in Rafah

While 1.5 million Palestinians live in Rafah in extremely precarious conditions, several elements suggest that the offensive brandished by Benjamin Netanyahu is being prepared.

“No humanitarian plan can counter this“: an Israeli army ground operation in the town of Rafah, south of Gaza, would be “a tragedy without a name“, warned Tuesday, May 1, the head of UN humanitarian affairs, Martin Griffiths in a press release, after the declarations of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, who reiterated his intention to enter this city where countless residents of Gaza have taken refuge, who fled Israeli bombings after the start of the war on October 7, provoked by the attack bloody Hamas.

If the international community tries to prevent this offensive, on site, this gigantic forced migration is already on everyone’s minds. Residents say shelling has intensified near the border to cut off the route to the tunnels. And everyone has heard about the camps being set up further north, in Khan Younès, explains Asma, whom franceinfo was able to contact: “People say there are tents in Khan Yunis by the sea so people can get out of Rafah if there is an Israeli operation.”

Safety concerns

On satellite images dating from the end of April, we can indeed see an alignment of tightly packed white tents. They were allegedly set up by the Egyptian Red Crescent. But the site seems largely undersized and concerns the UN and the NGOs who were not involved: “We observe this, we ask ourselves a lot of questions…, confides Philippe Bonnet, director of emergencies at the NGO Solidarités International. It is not enough to put up tents. Next to it, you need a whole sanitation, water and health service. Today, it doesn’t seem possible. Moreover, the number of tents that have been set up is not sufficient for this category of people.”he warns.

There are also security concerns: fighting has been intense in Khan Younes. Federico Dessi from Handicap International recalls that almost 10% of ammunition remains on the ground. “If they move towards areas that have been bombed, people are in danger. There are remnants of explosives of war, unexploded bombs that are sometimes found on the roads, on wastelands or between camps or houses.”

For this operation, Israel wants to buy 40,000 tents, capable of housing half a million people. Their installation on the field will strictly speaking symbolize the kick-off of the attack. On April 30, the Israeli Prime Minister promised that the army would enter the town of Rafah, on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, “with or without agreement” truce with the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.