𝗪𝗔𝗥 𝗖𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗣𝗦 𝗖𝗟𝗢𝗦𝗘𝗥 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗦𝗘 𝗜𝗡 𝗚𝗔𝗭𝗔’𝗦 ‘𝗟𝗔𝗦𝗧 𝗥𝗘𝗙𝗨𝗚𝗘’
More than 1.5 million people are crammed into the southern Gaza city of Rafah amid Israel's war on Hamas and other militant groups in the Palestinian coastal territory, sheltering in what has been described as the Strip's "last refuge."
Israeli airstrikes have repeatedly hit targets in Rafah, which sits along the border with Egypt. The crossing there is Gaza's only access to the outside world, all remaining crossings along the Israeli border having been closed following Hamas' October 7 infiltration attack into southern Israel.
As the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) edge into the city of Khan Younis only a few miles north of Rafah, the war is creeping closer for those trying in vain to escape it. Gazans displaced by the fighting elsewhere have no other place to go, American volunteer doctors recently returned from a stint working in the Strip's struggling hospitals told Newsweek.
"People are very anxious that this will happen," Dr. Zaher Sahloul, the president and co-founder of the MedGlobal NGO, who spent two weeks working in Gaza hospitals in January, said in an interview.
The IDF are still pushing to "eradicate" Hamas following the Islamist group's October 7 attack, in which some 1,200 people died and hundreds were taken back into Gaza as hostages.
Almost four months later, more than 26,700 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces—per figures reported by the Associated Press—among them several thousand fighters, according to IDF tallies. But Hamas is still operational, its senior leaders remain at large, and the Israeli vision for post-war Gaza appears vague.
In Rafah, the strain of the war is clear. The city's pre-war population of some 300,000 has swollen to 1.5 million as Palestinians flee southwards.
"Everyone is afraid of a cholera outbreak because of the lack of clean water and the sewage infiltrating within the wells, and the pressure on the sewer system," Sahloul said, sharing his experience of working at hospitals and clinics in both Rafah and Khan Younis, until the latter became too dangerous.
Dr. John Kahler, a fellow co-founder of MedGlobal, told Newsweek that those taking shelter in Rafah "are terrified as to what's going to happen...There's only seven kilometers left before the Egyptian border." Sahloul said fighting in and around Rafah could prove "catastrophic."
Control of the Philadelphi Corridor, as the narrow strip of land running between Egypt and Gaza is known to the Israelis, certainly appears to be a major goal for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The frontier region has long been used by Hamas and other militant groups to smuggle weapons into the Strip.
The area "must be in our hands," Netanyahu said recently. "It must be shut. It is clear that any other arrangement would not ensure the demilitarization that we seek."
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