‘Families are packing’ after Israel’s Rafah evacuation orders
Following Israel’s latest evacuation orders for parts of Rafah, Louise Wateridge, UNRWA’s communications manager, said that an estimated 150,000 people have fled Rafah so far.
“Everywhere you look now in west Rafah this morning, families are packing. The streets are noticeably empty,” Wateredge wrote on X.
Kuwaiti Hospital among places ‘threatened with evacuation’
Saheb al-Hams, a hospital director in Rafah, has said that “sadly” the Kuwaiti Specialty Hospital in Rafah city “is now included in the places threatened with evacuation” following Israel’s latest order.
“There is no other place for patients and injured people to go to but this hospital,” al-Hams said in a video message to journalists. The director called for “immediate international protection” for the medical facility.
Rafah residents ‘leaving for the unknown’
Palestinians taking shelter in eastern Rafah are fleeing after Israel issued an evacuation order.
The UN estimates more than 100,000 people have now evacuated while the Israeli forces say the figure is about 300,000.
“They called us three times, and the neighbours came and said get out quickly. They sent an evacuation order for the entire area. What should we do here? Do we wait until we all die on top of each other? So we decided to leave, it’s better,” said Hanan al-Satari, a Rafah resident.
Faten Lafi, another resident of the southern Gaza city, said: “We are forcibly leaving after the occupation army threatened us, through recorded calls and in a post published on Facebook. We are leaving because of fear and coercion. We are leaving for the unknown and there are no safe areas at all. All the areas left are unsafe.”
More uncertainty for Palestinians after new evacuation orders
The Israeli military has stated within the past 24 hours that the operation in Rafah is limited.
But what we’re seeing on the ground is more expansion of the military operations, the air strikes and the intense bombing campaign that started to include the central part of the city and the central-southern part of Rafah city close to the Kuwaiti Hospital and near areas where thousands of displaced families had set up their makeshift tents in the streets or inside evacuation zones sheltering from the horror of the war.
These new evacuation orders are sending people to new uncertainties; they don’t know where to go, particularly after the proof that they have that these “safe zones” designated by the Israeli military are not safe after all – people ended up being killed inside these designated zones.
More people have fled Rafah so far but there are still more who are trapped in areas unable to evacuate because of the intensity of the bombing and of the extreme force of the Israeli military.
‘We are abandoned by the world and everyone feels betrayed’
Islamic Relief has released a statement with the account of a staff member in Gaza while also condemning Israel’s latest evacuation orders that, it said, have created utter “chaos and panic”. 
“I feel like this is the end. It feels like we will all be either trapped and killed in Gaza, or we will all be forced out. People have stayed in Rafah thinking it’s safe and hoping that global pressure would stop an invasion. But now we are abandoned by the world and everyone feels betrayed and let down.
“It’s an unimaginable scene, with tens of thousands of people looking for shelter. People are pale and thin, tired and afraid. There are children, women, elderly people and people with disabilities trying to flee in wheelchairs. Injured people have to leave hospital with recent bandages and bloodstains.
“In other parts of Gaza, the few bits of remaining land are now filling up with tents and shacks built of bits of wood and nylon.
“No humanitarian assistance has entered since Israel took over the Rafah crossing and Kerem (Karem) Abu Salem crossing closed. Bakeries have stopped working because they don’t have fuel, so we don’t have bread. We don’t have any water supply as that also depends on fuel deliveries, so yesterday we had to pay $50 just to refill our tank. Cars have stopped, so people coming from Rafah to the Middle Area are either walking or packed into vans carrying hundreds of people.
“Many people in Gaza are already suffering from famine, but now we are entering a new period of unprecedented hardship.”
No ‘safety’ in Khan Younis schools to where Palestinians are fleeing: UNRWA
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees released images of heavily damaged or destroyed schools it runs in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, to where many Palestinians have been forcibly displaced after the Israeli invasion of Rafah.
“The classrooms are torched. Walls are blown out. There is rubble everywhere,” it said, adding there is no real safety or shelter at these schools.
“This situation is unfolding under the world’s watch. Enough is enough.”
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