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Lower than two weeks after bombs started raining down on the Gaza Strip, Ghada al-Kurd arrived within the southern metropolis of Khan Younis. She had already been displaced 3 times, and hoped it might be her remaining journey to security.
However three months later, Israeli forces superior south. Ms. al-Kurd, 37, talking by phone, stated she, her sister, brother-in-law, and 4 nieces and nephews deserted the tent that they had been sharing “with out taking something with us,” and headed to Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost metropolis.
Lots of the roughly 1.7 million Gazans that U.N. businesses say have been displaced by Israel’s relentless bombardment and floor invasion have fled repeatedly over the course of a conflict that had now entered its fifth month. And Ms. al-Kurd’s members of the family quantity amongst greater than one million individuals who have crowded into Rafah, solely to listen to that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israeli army on Friday to attract up plans to evacuate “fight zones” within the metropolis upfront of an anticipated floor offensive.
The order, which set off worldwide alarm, is forcing the displaced folks sheltering there, together with greater than 200,000 of Rafah’s residents, to weigh their subsequent transfer.
“I remorse leaving Gaza Metropolis,” stated Ms. al-Kurd, whose two daughters stayed behind within the north with their father. “If I stayed house it might have been higher than all of the struggling and humiliation of displacement, as a result of each time you flee to a brand new place you must begin another time.”
If Israel permits it and the roads open, she stated, she is going to instantly return to Gaza Metropolis, “and that might be my remaining time fleeing.”
Many others now in Rafah additionally inform of repeated displacement. Talaat al-Qaisi stated he and his spouse had simply completed furnishing their new condo, within the upscale Rimal neighborhood of Gaza Metropolis, when their constructing was bombed on Oct. 10, simply days after the Hamas-led assaults on Israel that set off the conflict.
The household escaped simply in time, after seeing neighbors working from their very own houses. “We barely received out of the constructing when the bombing started on our avenue,” Mr. al-Qaisi stated, talking by phone.
They sheltered at a close-by church, however on Oct. 13, Israel ordered residents within the north to evacuate. Mr. al-Qaisi and his son walked for greater than 4 hours to his sister’s condo in Rafah and despatched a automotive for his spouse, who was unwell, and the remainder of the household. All 10 family members, together with his 7-month-old grandson, are staying in a tiny one-room condo in Rafah, he stated.
Requested what he would do subsequent, he stated: “Planning something has change into ineffective and pointless,” including, “The scenario retains exceeding our earlier predictions” of how a lot worse it will probably get.
Mr. al-Qaisi predicted full chaos if Israeli forces moved into Rafah, with folks prone to begin working in all instructions, not understanding the place to go.
“I’ll transfer with the crowds, what else can I do? Now we have nowhere else to go,” he stated. “Different folks I spoke to advised me that they refuse to flee once more even when meaning dying of their shelters.”
Mohammed al-Baradie, 24, stated the specter of an Israeli advance on Rafah had persuaded him to maneuver once more, in his fourth displacement. However his plan to flee to Nuseirat, in central Gaza, was upended by heavy shelling there in a single day, he stated.
“Half of the folks in Gaza are right here in Rafah and they’re in the identical scenario,” he stated in a voice message on Saturday. “They don’t know the place to go.”
Emma Bubola contributed reporting from London.
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