Photo: Mohammed Abed Agence France-Presse A woman is crying in front of a vehicle loaded with belongings in Rafah on Tuesday. Terrified families dismantled their tents in Rafah and gathered their belongings while others headed north, their luggage piled on the roof of their cars.
Adel Zaanoun – Agence France-Presse and Chloé Rouveyrolles-Bazire – Agence France-Presse respectively in the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem
2:54 p.m.
- Middle East
International pressure intensified on Tuesday for a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas including a new release of hostages, after the Israeli announcement of an upcoming offensive on Rafah, the last refuge for more than a million Palestinians in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Egypt, a traditional mediator between Israel and the Palestinians, hosted the US and Israeli intelligence directors and the Qatari prime minister on Tuesday for talks on a truce.
The families of the hostages held in Gaza, who continue to urge the government to do everything possible to allow their release, sent a message to the Israeli delegation, imploring: “Do not come back so that not everyone has returned — the living and the dead.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently ordered the army to prepare an offensive on Rafah, where 1.4 million Palestinians are massed, according to the UN, more than half of the total population of Gaza, the most having fled the war that has been raging for four months in the territory besieged by Israel.
On Monday, the army freed two Israeli-Argentinian hostages during a nighttime operation in Rafah accompanied by bombings which left around a hundred dead, according to Hamas.
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“Already dead”
Terrified after this operation, families dismantled their tents on Tuesday and gathered their belongings while others headed north, their luggage piled on the roof of their cars.
“We were moved from Gaza City [in the north], to the south, then again to Rafah,” testified a mother, Ahlam Abou Assi. “If they ask me to go back, I will only do it if it is safe,” she added, crying. “Otherwise, I would rather die here. We are already dead. »
Mohammed Suleiman al-Kawarea, originally from Khan Younès, a few kilometers north of Rafah, decided to return to his town, despite the continued bombings.
“Three days ago, in the al-Mawasi neighborhood of Rafah, which is supposed to be a safe area, we heard fighter jets and tanks and the whole world turned upside down. We couldn't sleep, eat or drink all night. […] Today, we are fleeing again towards Khan Younès,” he told AFP.
On Tuesday, smoke rose above Khan Yunis and Rafah after strikes, according to AFP journalists in the Gaza Strip.
Photo: Fatima Shbair Associated Press On Monday, the army freed two Israeli-Argentinian hostages during a nighttime operation in Rafah accompanied by bombings which left around a hundred dead, according to Hamas. Here we see two children observing the damage from this operation.
Despite warnings from many foreign capitals, Benjamin Netanyahu says he is determined to continue “military pressure until complete victory” on Hamas, of which Rafah is the “last bastion”, according to him, to free the hostages.
According to Israel, 130 hostages are still in Gaza, among whom 29 are believed to have died, out of approximately 250 people kidnapped on October 7 during the Hamas attack on Israel. A week-long truce in November allowed the release of 105 hostages and 240 Palestinians held by Israel.
Hamas' military wing said five hostages had died as a result of bombings in recent days. AFP was unable to verify this information.
“Devastating consequences” of attacking Rafah
The United States, Israel's main ally, opposes an offensive in Rafah without guarantees for the safety of civilians trapped against the closed border with Egypt.
US President Joe Biden asked Israel for a “credible” plan to spare civilians, “exposed and vulnerable”, during a meeting Monday at the White House with King Abdullah II of Jordan, who called for “an immediate lasting ceasefire”.
China also called on Israel on Tuesday to stop its military operation in Rafah “as quickly as possible”, in order to “prevent an even more serious humanitarian catastrophe”.
The Secretary General of the UN, Antònio Guterres, hoped on Tuesday that the negotiations “will succeed, in order to avoid a total offensive on Rafah, where the heart of the humanitarian system is located, which would have devastating consequences”.
The war was sparked on October 7 by an unprecedented Hamas attack in southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,160 people, mostly civilians killed that day, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
In retaliation, Israel vowed to annihilate the Islamist movement, in power in Gaza since 2007, which it considers a terrorist organization, like the United States, Canada and the European Union.
The Israeli offensive left 28,473 dead in Gaza, the vast majority of them civilians, according to the Hamas government's Ministry of Health.
“Secure passage”, but to where?
On Tuesday, CIA Director William Burns, Mossad Chief David Barnea and Qatar's head of government, Mohammed bin Abdelrahmane Al-Thani, met with Egyptian leaders in Cairo with the aim of “working towards a truce in the Gaza Strip,” according to AlQahera News television, close to Egyptian intelligence.
“Hamas and other Palestinian movements are awaiting the results of the Cairo talks,” one of its executives told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Faced with international fears, Mr. Netanyahu affirmed on Sunday that Israel would open “a secure passage” to the population to leave Rafah, without specifying to which destination.
Germany called on Israel on Tuesday to guarantee safe passages for the protection of civilians in Rafah, where two Al Jazeera journalists were seriously injured in an Israeli strike, according to the Qatari channel.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Israel is proposing to create 15 vast camps of 25,000 tents each in the southwest of the Strip from Gaza, as part of an evacuation plan.
Rafah, which has become a gigantic encampment, is the main entry point for humanitarian aid into Gaza, insufficient to meet the needs of the population who live in “conditions close to famine”, according to the World Food Program (WFP).