Israel intensifies attacks on Rafah as desperate Palestinians fight in tents

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The tent camps stretch for more than 16 kilometers along Gaza’s People crowd the shore, filling the beach and sprawling on empty lots, fields and roads. Families dig trenches to use as toilets. Fathers search for food and water. Children rummage through garbage and destroyed buildings for wood or cardboard that their mothers can burn for cooking.

In the last three weeks Israel’s offensive in Rafah has displaced nearly a million Palestinians from southern Gaza City. Most were killed during Israel’s nearly eight-month War in the Gaza Stripwhose aim is to destroy Hamas, but which has devastated the area and, according to the United Nations, almost caused famine.

The situation was further aggravated by a Collapse in the amount of food, fuel and other supplies The UN and other aid organizations are reaching out to the population so that they can distribute the funds. The Palestinians, who were already partly dependent on humanitarian aid before the war, are now largely on their own to find the basics of survival.

“The situation is tragic. 20 people live in a tent, without clean water or electricity. We have nothing,” says Mohammad Abu Radwan, a teacher with his wife, six children and other family members.

“I can’t describe what it feels like to be constantly on the run and to lose your loved ones,” he said. “All of this destroys us psychologically.”

Abu Radwan fled Rafah shortly after the Israeli attack on the city began on May 6, when shelling approached the house where he was sheltering. He and three other families paid $1,000 for donkey carts to take them to the outskirts of Khan Younis, about 6 kilometers away. They had to live outside for a day before gathering materials for a makeshift tent. Next to the tent, they dug a toilet trench and hung blankets and old clothes around it to maintain their privacy.

Typically, families have to buy wood and tarpaulins for their tents, which can cost up to $500, not including ropes, nails and the cost of transporting the materials, humanitarian organization Mercy Corps said.

Israeli authorities Control of all entry points into Gaza have allowed a greater number of private trucks into the area, the UN and aid workers say. There is more fruit and vegetables in the markets and the prices of some of them have fallen, Palestinians say.

Yet most homeless Palestinians cannot afford these funds. Many in Gaza have not received a salary for months and their savings are running low. Even those who have money in the bank often cannot withdraw it because there is so little cash in the area. Many turn to the black market, which charges fees of up to 20 percent for cash transfers from bank accounts.

Meanwhile, the number of humanitarian convoys delivering free aid has fallen to almost the lowest level since the war began, according to a UN report.

Previously, the United Nations received several hundred trucks a day. Since May 6, that has dropped to an average of 53 trucks a day, according to the latest figures from the United Nations humanitarian office on Friday. According to USAID, around 600 trucks a day are needed to prevent famine.

Over the past three weeks, the majority of aid has been delivered through two border crossings from Israel in the north of the Gaza Strip and through a US-built floating pier receives deliveries by seaBut that pier has ceased operations after being damaged by rough seas, three U.S. officials said told Associated Press on Tuesday.

The two main border crossings in the south, Egypt’s Rafah and Israel’s Kerem Shalom, are either not operational or largely inaccessible to the UN because of the fighting nearby. Israel says it has allowed hundreds of trucks through Kerem Shalom, but the UN has only been able to intercept about 170 of them on the Gaza side in the past three weeks.

According to the UN, the amount of fuel entering the region has fallen to about a third of what it contained before the Rafah offensive, making it harder to keep hospitals, bakeries, water pumps and trucks carrying aid running.

The American aid organization Anera “is having difficulty distributing the aid we can deliver to those in need because there is so little fuel for the trucks,” said spokesman Steve Fake.

Most fleeing Rafah have poured into an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone centered around Muwasi, a largely barren coastal strip. The zone has expanded north and east to reach the outskirts of Khan Younis and the central town of Deir al-Balah, which have also filled with people.

“As we can see, there is nothing ‘humanitarian’ about these areas,” says Suze van Meegen, head of operations for the Norwegian Refugee Council in the Gaza Strip, who is currently in the Rafah area.

In large parts of the humanitarian zone there are neither charity kitchens nor food markets. and there are no functioning hospitalsThere are only a few field hospitals and even smaller medical tents that are not sufficient for emergencies. According to Mercy Corps, they distribute painkillers and antibiotics when they have them.

There are no water resources or sewage systems in the Muwasi area. As human excrement settles near tents and garbage piles up, many people suffer from gastrointestinal diseases such as hepatitis and diarrhea, as well as skin allergies and lice, Mercy Corps said.

One aid worker who fled Rafah said he was lucky and could afford a house in Deir al-Balah. “You can’t walk,” he said, because so many tents have been set up in the city. He spoke on condition of anonymity because his agency had not given him permission. Many people he sees on the street are yellow with jaundice.

Israel says its offensive in Rafah is crucial to its war goal of destruction Hamas in Gaza after the Attack of October 7in which militants in southern Israel killed about 1,200 people and abducted about 250 others. Israel’s campaign in the Gaza Strip According to the Gaza Strip’s Health Ministry, around 36,000 people died in the attack triggered by the attack.

Aid groups have been warning for months that an attack on Rafah would worsen the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. So far, Israeli operations have fallen short of the planned full-scale invasion, although fighting has spread from eastern parts of Rafah to central districts.

An attack on Sunday hit a tent camp in western Rafah, causing a large fire. at least 45 people killedsaid health officials. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted a “tragic mistake” Had occurred.

Satellite photos taken by Planet Labs PBC on May 24 show the exodus sparked by the attack and densely packed new tent camps along the coast from north of Rafah to outside Deir al-Balah. The tents and shelters are tightly packed in a maze of corrugated iron and plastic sheeting. Blankets and bedsheets are draped over sticks for privacy.

Tamer Saeed Abu’l Kheir said he goes out to fetch water at 6 a.m. every day and usually returns to the tent outside Khan Younis where he and nearly two dozen relatives live around noon. His three children, ages 4 to 10, are always sick, but he said he has to send them out to fetch wood for the cooking fire.

He fears that they might find unexploded bombs in the destroyed houses.

His elderly father has difficulty moving and uses a bucket to go to the toilet. Abu’l Kheir has to regularly pay for his father’s transport to the nearest hospital for dialysis.

“Wood costs money, water costs money, everything costs money,” said his wife Leena Abu’l Kheir. She burst into sobs. “I’m afraid that one day I’ll wake up and have lost my children, my mother, my husband, my family.”

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Magdy and Keath reported from Cairo. Associated Press correspondents Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, Fatma Khaled in Cairo, Tara Copp in Washington and Mohammed Jahjouh in Muwasi, Gaza contributed to this report.

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