Displaced Palestinians who left with their belongings from Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, following an evacuation order from the Israeli army, arrive in Khan Younis on May 6, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas. (Credit: AFP via Getty Images)
Palestinian civilians leaving eastern Rafah following the evacuation order from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have described their fear and desperation to a CNN correspondent in the area.
Mohammed Ghanem and his wife pushed strollers full of belongings. Ghanem told CNN: “We no longer have a home. We are heading to Mawasi because there is no security with the Israelis. They are killing women and children.”
Ghanem added: “We left because they distributed leaflets and are attacking everywhere without differentiating between children, adults, militants or non-militant. I abandoned my house that I have been building for 17 years.”
Another woman from east Rafah said: “The Israelis sent us messages ordering us to leave. We cannot stay.”
One man on a bicycle, Faisal Barbakh, told CNN: “I’m going into the unknown. I feel terrible. I wish one of the people who caused this to us was walking with us.”
“I have been here all my life. My family is destroyed in seven places. I feel like it is the end of life. I can’t think anymore. I have left behind 59 years of life, all my memories, the photos of my children, the contract of my house. Only God knows how much effort I have invested in it. It is not just my feeling, it is everyone’s.
Videos from the area showed trucks full of people’s belongings traveling through the streets, which became increasingly crowded as the day progressed.
Two boys, Malek and Yousef, set out on their own on bicycles, clinging to their bags. One of them said: “We fled from the Israelis. They warned us and ordered us to evacuate the eastern area. I have my clothes and food in the bag. We are going to our grandparents’ house.”
Many of those leaving eastern Rafah have been displaced before. One man told CNN: “This is the fourth time I’ve been displaced. From Nuseirat to Khan Younis, then to Rafah, and now another one. I don’t know where I’m going.”
Not all were heading to areas designated by the Israel Defense Forces as safer. Baker Al Ma’moun told CNN: “I’m not leaving. Where am I going to go? To Mawasi, among the displaced? No, I prefer to stay with my family. Do you want to displace us like in ’48? I will never accept that.”
In Mawasi, a coastal area already crowded with displaced people, some of the new arrivals were confused and disoriented. The streets were packed with trucks and donkey carts, among huge piles of garbage.
Mohammad Abu Khamash told CNN: “I came here from Rafah and I didn’t find anywhere to stay. People even say we should leave.” [de aquí]. I swear I don’t know where to go. “They distributed pamphlets and people panicked and started running away.”
Ahmad Safi said that he and his family had left Khan Younis in the direction of Rafah. “We had to endure air raids that endangered our lives and those of our children. We left in search of a bit of a decent life that we can live with our families.”
Safi said he fetched water every day. “There is no life. It is very complicated. I arrived in Khan Younis and I felt very depressed. It was a city full of life and happiness, but now it is not even worth living in. We are 8 members of a family. We came in a car from Rafah. “I’m still in shock about leaving Rafah.”
“There is no security anywhere. The Israelis can enter at any time wherever they want,” Safi added.
Abu Salah said he had left Rafah under heavy fire. “There is no security. Security is being in my house. Security is moving from one place to another like a cat with its children, begging for some water and a coupon [de comida]?
“There will be no solution as long as ours (Hamas) and the Israelis seek to protect their positions. There will never be a solution. The solution is in the hands of God,” Salah added.
A woman named Maha said that Palestinian civilians were at the mercy of the Israeli army. “They can tell you to go here and they kill you here, or they tell you to go there and they kill you there. They don’t want security for us.”
“The solution is to end this cause, not just stop the war, but have a Palestinian state,” he added.
