By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) – The army of Israel flattens the remaining ruins of the city of Rafah at the southern end of the Gaza Strip, according to residents, in what they fear being part of a plan to bring the population in a giant camp on sterile soil.
No food or medical supply has reached 2.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip in almost two months, because Israel has imposed what has since become its longest blockade in the territory, after the collapse of a six-week ceasefire.
Israel has revived its campaign on the ground in mid-March and has since seized landing and has ordered residents of what it says to be “buffer zones” on the banks of Gaza, including any rafah which represents about 20% of the strip.
Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported on Saturday that the military created a new “humanitarian zone” in Rafah, to which civilians would be moved after security checks to prevent Hamas fighters. Aid would be distributed by private companies.
The Israeli army has not yet commented on the report and has not immediately responded to a request for comments from Reuters. Residents said massive explosions could now be heard from the dead area where Rafah once presented himself as a city of 300,000 inhabitants.
“The explosions never stop, day and night, whenever the ground is shaking, we know that they destroy more houses in Rafah. Rafah is gone,” said Tamer, a man from Gaza City moved to Deir Al-Balah, further north, in Reuters by text message.
He said he received telephone calls from friends as far as the other side of the border in Egypt, whose children were awake by the explosions.
Abu Mohammed, another man inappropriate in Gaza, told Reuters by text: “We are terrified that they could force us to Rafah, which will be like a cage of a concentration camp, completely sealed in the world.”
Israel, which imposed its total blockage in Gaza on March 2, says that enough supplies reached the territory in the previous six weeks of the truce that it does not think that the population is in danger. He indicates that he cannot allow food or drugs because Hamas fighters would exploit it.
The United Nations agencies say that the Gazans are on the precipice of mass hunger and illness, with conditions now at their worst since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, when Hamas fighters attacked the Israeli communities.
Gaza health officials said on Monday that at least 23 people were killed in the latest Israeli strikes through the strip.
At least 10, some of whom were killed on an Israeli air strike in a jabalia house in the north and six were killed on an air strike in a cafe in the south. Images circulating on social networks have shown that some victims have been critical when they sat around a coffee table.
Eat weeds and turtles
The talks mediated by Qatar and Egypt have so far failed to prolong the ceasefire, during which Hamas released 38 hostages and Israel released hundreds of prisoners and detainees.
Fifty-nine Israeli hostages are still detained in Gaza, less than half of them believed alive. Hamas says it would only release them under an agreement that ended the war; Israel says it will only suit temporary breaks in the fighting unless Hamas is completely disarmed, which the combatants reject.
In Doha, the Prime Minister of Qatar said on Sunday that efforts to reach a new ceasefire in Gaza had made progress.
Friday, the World Food Program said that it lacked food stocks in Gaza after the longest closure of the Gaza Strip.
Some residents visited the streets in search of weeds that grow naturally on the ground, others have picked up dry leaves of the trees. Quite desperate, the fishermen turned to the capture of turtles, to flay them and the sale of their meat.
“I went to the doctor the other day, and he said that I had stones in my kidney and that I needed surgery that would cost me about $ 300. I told him that I prefer to use pain relievers and use money to buy food for my children,” said a woman from Gaza City to Reuters, asking not to be identified for fear of retribution.
“There is no meat, no cooking gas, no flour and no life, it's Gaza in simple but painful terms.”
The Gaza War began after fighters led by Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages in Gaza during the October 2023 attacks, according to Israeli accounts. Since then, Israel’s offensive on the enclave has killed more than 51,400, according to Palestinian health officials.
(Reporting and Writing by Nidal Al-Mughrabi; edition by Peter Graff)
