Palestinians flee Rafah amid rain and bombs: “Where will people go?”
Lashed by rain and fearing Israeli bombs, Palestinian civilians are fleeing tent camps or family homes in Rafah to seek refuge elsewhere in the Strip ahead of an expected offensive by the Israeli army. Some carry children and belongings in donkey carts, others in cars, others simply walk away.
Many of them are displaced people who have had to relocate at least once during the seven-month Israeli attack on Gaza. Up to a million people have gathered in this area near the border with Egypt. “The Israeli occupation told people to go to Rafah, which is a safe area. Today they tell us to leave Rafah. Where will people go?” laments one man, Abu Ahmed.
Israel ordered Palestinians on Monday to evacuate parts of Rafah and relocate to an “expanded humanitarian zone” 20 kilometers away. As the refugees prepared to leave, Israel has continued bombing eastern Rafah. “We have been awake since two in the morning because of the bombing, and in the morning we woke up and found that it was pouring rain, we were drowning in the rain, our clothes and other objects too, we are in the streets,” said a resident , Aminah Adwan.
