Before the war, about 280,000 people lived in Rafah, a city of 65 square kilometers – an area roughly the size of Borås. Now the population is over one and a half million.
Israel’s president on Friday gave the military a double order: come up with a plan to evacuate Rafah’s civilian population and destroy Hamas military cells. The president names Rafah as Hamas’ last stronghold and wants to see a massive military operation in the city – which is supposed to be a ground attack.
– A land invasion would have been catastrophic. We will see thousands more die, says Cecilia Chatterjee-Martinsen at Rädda Barnen.
Don’t know where they will go
To the south is the closed Egyptian border and to the north is bombed infrastructure – Rafah is the southernmost outpost in Gaza and it is uncertain where the population will go in the event of an evacuation.
– I don’t understand how it will happen. People who have fled to Rafah have already endured terrible trauma. They have often seen their loved ones die, their homes destroyed and have been forced to flee not just once but several times, says Cecilia Chatterjee-Martinsen.
Humanitarian disaster
In Rafah, the population lives with extremely limited access to food, water and medicines, according to Chatterjee-Martinsen. She believes that a land invasion had meant that the last emergency aid had ended.
– This is the only entrance available for humanitarian aid. If there is fighting in Rafah, the little humanitarian aid that comes in will have to end, because then it won’t be possible to get any more of it in.