As Israel prepares for the Rafah operation, tents start to rise in Gaza
In portions of central Gaza, where other Palestinians from northern Gaza are also seeking refuge, some of the population has already departed Rafah.
According to rumors, Israel's military is getting ready for an operation in the city of Rafah. Satellite photographs taken in southern Gaza indicate two new tent encampments.
The only city in Gaza that it hasn't yet reached is Rafah, which is near the Egyptian border. There have been months of well over a million people taking refuge there.
The United States has said that any attack must start with a strategy to defend them.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, maintains that taking Rafah is essential to fighting Hamas and finding hostages.
The present conflict started when Hamas assaulted Israeli villages close to Gaza, killing over 1,200 people—mostly civilians—and kidnapping another 250. There have been 34,183 deaths in Gaza as a result of Israel's ensuing campaign of aerial bombing and ground operations, the majority of whom were civilians, according to the health ministry operated by Hamas.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have invaded and seized control of much of central and southern Gaza, including Khan Younis, the biggest city in the south, as well as all of northern Gaza, including Gaza City, throughout the course of the six-month conflict.
Since then, they have left almost all of those locations, although soldiers are still stationed along the route that divides Gaza's northern and southern regions, which Israel constructed.
Nonetheless, Israeli airstrikes on Saturday resulted in the deaths of over 20 individuals, the most of whom were youngsters, in Rafah, where the shelling has persisted throughout Gaza.
The satellite images show tents close to Rafah and at a location west of Khan Younis arranged in rows. Images taken before and after this month showed that both encampments had been built.
Israeli media said earlier this month that Israel was purchasing 40,000 tents in order to be ready to evacuate Palestinian inhabitants from Rafah. Each tent could accommodate between ten and twelve people, according to Israeli government sources cited by Reuters on Wednesday.
According to claims from Israeli media, plans were underway to remove residents from Rafah. The Israel HaYom daily said that after a stalemate in discussions between Israel and Hamas over a ceasefire and the release of captives, the Israeli leadership planned to launch an operation in Rafah "very soon". Such reports appeared in other Israeli newspapers.
Israeli and Egyptian officials have been quoted by US media as saying that over the course of several weeks, residents of Rafah will be relocated to Khan Younis and other areas, such as al-Mawasi, a sandy coastal area between Rafah and Khan Younis that Israel declared a "humanitarian zone" earlier in the conflict.
The Egyptian authorities reportedly said that Israeli soldiers will move into Rafah gradually and that the conflict would likely last for around six weeks.
Reuters says that neither Mr. Netanyahu's office nor the IDF responded to the accusations right away. Also, the BBC has contacted Israeli authorities for a response. Still, the armed forces said that it had sent two reserve brigades to Gaza for operations.
According to Israeli sources, hundreds of militants who have withdrawn to Rafah from other sections of Gaza have added to the four Hamas battalions that are now present in the area.
"Hamas suffered severe damage in the northern region. The middle of the Strip also received a severe blow. Additionally, Rafah will soon suffer a severe blow as well," Brigadier-General Itzik Cohen said on Israeli public television on Tuesday.
One day after the US and Israel convened virtually to deliberate an attack, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday that the US "cannot support a major military operation in Rafah".
He warned that any military action would have "terrible consequences" for civilians who remained in Rafah and that the US had not yet seen a strategy for moving them out of harm's way.
There is already a severe shortage of food, water, and medicine in the crammed southern metropolis, according to displaced residents who spoke with the BBC.
A few displaced Palestinians from Rafah tried to return to northern Gaza earlier this month, but the Israeli military drove them back. Its soldiers, according to witnesses, opened fire on crowds traveling along a major seaside route, killing five people. While the IDF refrained from commenting on the specific event, it did state that the northern part of Gaza is a "dangerous combat zone" and that Palestinians should remain there.
One of Hamas's main demands in the ongoing ceasefire negotiations is the return of Palestinians who have been displaced from northern Gaza, but Israel has not said when this would be possible.
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Additionally, there has been a resurgence of violence in several areas of northern Gaza as a result of Israeli military bombardment of the Jabalia refugee camp, Zeitoun, a suburb of Gaza City, and the villages of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya.
Living near Zeitoun, Um Mohammad, 53, is a mother of six children. "The bombing from tanks and planes didn't stop," she claimed.
"I had to gather with my children and my sisters who came to shelter along me in one place and pray for our lives as the house kept shaking," she said to Reuters.
