Palestinians killed in Rafah in their dozens as an impending Israeli
The Palestinians Red Crescent Society reports that numerous locations in Rafah were hit by “extremely intense” Israeli airstrikes and shelling overnight on Monday, killing dozens of people, including children, as international concern over Israel’s planned ground offensive in the southern Gaza city grows. According to the PRCS, early on Monday, over 100 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes, which targeted various parts of the city and saw helicopters firing machine guns along the border. Concerns have been raised that the number of fatalities may increase because, according to the PRCS, there are still people under the debris and a significant number of warplanes are over Rafah.
Medical facilities in Rafah “cannot handle the large number of injuries due to the Israeli occupation’s bombardment,” according to the director of Abu Yousef Al-Najjar Hospital. CNN was able to obtain footage from the hospital in Rafah, Al Kuwaiti, which showed a chaotic scene inside. In one scene, medical professionals were seen attempting to revive a lifeless child, while in another, a wounded man was being treated by doctors on the hospital floor. Another video showed a distraught woman clutching the body of a child covered in white cloth. The Rafah municipality said on Monday that the strikes had targeted at least two mosques in addition to about a dozen residences. The Israeli military acknowledged that two Israeli hostages were freed in a “special operation” and that it carried out a “series of strikes” on what it claimed were targets in the Shaboura neighborhood of Rafah. The Israel Defense Forces, Israel Security Agency Shin Bet, and Police jointly released a statement identifying the hostages as Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70, claiming that Hamas abducted them from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak on October 7.
“The final stronghold of Palestinians “
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, announced on Friday that the IDF would “soon go into Rafah, Hamas’s last bastion,” and he gave the military order to prepare for the “evacuation of the population” from Rafah. Following his remarks, Human Rights Watch declared that forcing Palestinians out of Rafah would have “catastrophic consequences,” sparking a flurry of criticism. UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that the UN was “extremely worried about the fate of civilians in Rafah” and that people “need to be protected.” According to a Hamas leadership source, an attack on Rafah would result in the “destruction” of weeks-long negotiations, as reported by Al-Aqsa TV. In addition, a growing number of nations, including the UK, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Qatar, have expressed concern over Israel’s impending offensive. The foreign ministry of Saudi Arabia issued a warning on Sunday about the “very serious repercussions of storming and targeting” the city. Meanwhile, Qatar, a major mediator in the negotiations between Israel and Hamas, urged the UN Security Council to “prevent” Israel from carrying out what it called “genocide” and issued a warning about a “humanitarian catastrophe in the city.” On February 3, 2024, a satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies depicts Rafah, Gaza.
On February 3, 2024, a satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies depicts Rafah, Gaza. ©2024 satellite image Technologies Maxar US President Joe Biden “reaffirmed” his position that the IDF should not carry out the military operation in Rafah “without a credible and executable plan” to ensure the safety of civilians during a call with Netanyahu on Sunday, according to a White House release. Netanyahu, however, dismissed the criticism, claiming that instructing Israel to stay out of the southern Gazan city was akin to telling it to lose the war.
“The dead are superior to us.”
Fear and anxiety are gripping the more than a million Palestinians residents of the southern city as a result of the anticipated push into Rafah. A Palestinian resident of Rafah named Mohammad Jamal Abu Tour said, “We are praying to God that what happened in Gaza City does not happen in Rafah because if the same happens in Rafah we will have no place to go.” “The supplies that were provided for us here in Rafah are not going to be found if we travel to Gaza City, Khan Younis, or El Nuseirat,” he continued. “We keep hearing that people in Gaza City are eating grass and drinking from the sea, and that they are unable to find clean water. God help them.” KARAMEH, GAZA – FEBRUARY 02: After Israeli Forces left the areas in Khan Yunis, Gaza on February 02, 2024, this is what remains of the destroyed buildings and roads. After Karameh withdrew, weeks of nonstop Israeli bombardment caused extensive devastation. The region was reduced to a wasteland of debris and ash as a result of the airstrikes and bulldozer operations. The area had been devastated, as seen by the aftermath of the Israeli withdrawal from the city.
Israel violence against Palestinians
Following Israeli operations in northern Gaza, residents of Gaza City’s Tal El Hawa neighbourhood described scenes of “total destruction,” with some claiming they were forced to drink from toilets due to a shortage of water. “A siege was imposed upon us. We attempted to return northward, but we were surrounded here, Abdul Kareem Al-Qaseer said to a CNN reporter. There were martyrs every day. There was shelling every day. There was hunger every day. Even the water from the toilets was forced upon us. It was our duty to drink from and force our kids to drink from it. He continued, “There was no drink, no food. According to Olfat Hamdan, she saw dead bodies lying around Gaza City, and she said that “nobody was able to drag them or move them.” Rafah is the southernmost city of Gaza, and Palestinians have been living there in makeshift tents as an IDF ground campaign approaches. “What have I observed? In a CNN-commissioned video, she said, “Total destruction – look at of the scale of the destruction,” pointing to the collapsed buildings and debris around her. CNN reported that the destruction in the southern city of Khan Younis, where the Israeli military had in the early days of the war urged a large number of civilians to evacuate, was unimaginable.
Numerous buildings have been completely demolished and the debris bulldozed away since the IDF concentrated its campaign on Khan Younis. The ones that remain seem irreparably damaged. Some have lone walls with holes where windows once were, resembling the ruins of mediaeval castles. The large-scale human cost of a war that has already caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis for the people of Gaza, including starvation, an impending famine, a medical disaster, and the deaths of over 28,100 Palestinians, is at the core of growing fears surrounding an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah, according to information released by the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza.