(Jerusalem) Determined to carry out an offensive on Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, Israel remains extremely vague on its plans to evacuate hundreds of thousands of civilians, an operation deemed almost “impossible” by humanitarians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu keeps repeating it: “we will enter Rafah”, a town bordering Egypt, where Palestinians chased by the fighting between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas have taken refuge in the rest of the Strip. Gaza.
According to the UN, some 1.5 million civilians are massed there, compared to a population of 200 to 300,000 people before the war.
Mr. Netanyahu, who vowed “to destroy the last Hamas battalions” grouped in this refuge, also assured Sunday that there would be no operation “as long as the population is stuck there”, and indicated that he had received evacuation plans from the army.
Or ? When ? How ? Israel remains very vague regarding this massive evacuation, a challenge that many humanitarians consider “impossible” in the devastated, bombed territory, and where “there is no safe place”, summarizes Nadia Hardman, of Human Rights Watch ( HRW).
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz remained evasive on Monday on Kan public radio: “before any massive operation, we will evacuate the citizens. Not north, but west. There are Arab countries that can help by setting up tents, or something else.”
Army spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari spoke to the press last week about the establishment of “humanitarian islands” in the center of the Gaza Strip, with the help of the community. international, without giving further details.
” Impossible ”
Humanitarian islands, tent villages: “I honestly don’t know where they’re supposed to be established […] whether they will be north or south of Wadi Gaza. “, river located in the center of the territory, questioned Monday Jamie McGoldrick, UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, evoking a “very difficult” scenario for NGOs in the event of a mass evacuation.
“The United Nations will not participate in any forced displacement” of populations, he stressed.
The United States, for its part, asked to “see” the Israeli plans and warned that it would not support an action that did not take civilians into account.
Nadia Hardman of HRW is categorical: “moving 1.5 million people into a devastated area is absolutely impossible,” she told AFP. “Where are these people supposed to go?” “.
Israel has declared certain areas protected humanitarian spaces, notably in Al-Mawasi, a coastal area in the south of the territory between Khan Younes and Rafah. But hundreds of thousands of people are already sheltering in tents there, and the area has been bombed several times since the war began more than five months ago.
“People don’t understand, don’t know where to go,” continues Mme Hardman denouncing “a patchwork of evacuation orders that make no sense”.
In Rafah, the displaced people can’t take it anymore. “Let them do what they want. They lie, there is no safe place,” says bitterly Hussein Al-Helou, a 38-year-old man living in Al-Mawasi in a tent with his wife, six children and mother.
“Where will we go if they enter Rafah, where will we find tents, mattresses, blankets? They displaced us and destroyed our homes, what else can they do to us? », says Sabah Al-Astal, 50 years old, originally from Khan Younes and moved with her family to the west of Rafah.
Liar Poker
Benjamin Netanyahu is determined to launch this offensive, announced more than a month ago, despite “international pressure”. However, according to David Khalfa, Middle East specialist at the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, the threat also involves “psychological warfare”.
“The Israelis maintain an artistic vagueness around their plans because they do not want to play down their cards to keep Hamas in uncertainty,” he believes.
“The threat of a major offensive in Rafah is a card in a lying poker game with Hamas, a means of pressure intended to force it to soften its positions in the current negotiation” on a truce, explains he, judging that “we are not at all on the eve of a massive land operation in Rafah”.
The war in Gaza was triggered by the bloody Hamas attack on October 7 in Israel, which resulted in the death of 1,160 people, mainly civilians, according to a report established by AFP based on official data. The Israeli military operation launched in retaliation left more than 31,700 dead in the Gaza Strip, mainly civilians, according to the Palestinian Islamist movement’s Ministry of Health.