Rafa and Gaza city’s latest evacuation orders forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee again.
Israel is currently restricting access to about two-thirds of Gaza by declaring large areas as no-go zones or issuing forced evacuation orders, according to the Humanitarian Agreement Coordination Agency (OCHA).
Among the restricted areas is a wide strip of South Rafa, where Israeli forces issued a new evacuation order on March 31, declared they had returned to “fight with great force.”
The restrictions also cover parts of Gaza city where Israeli forces launched new ground attacks to expand their “security zones” on Friday morning.
These escalations led to one of the greatest mass displacements of the war, prompting hundreds of thousands of Palestinians (already difficult to avoid multiple) to escape again.
“Our biggest struggle right now is evacuation,” Abu Hezem Karev, an elderly man who evacuated from the east of Gaza City, told Al Jazeera. “I don’t know how to handle this situation. I’m looking for a street where I can set up a tent, heading west of Gaza.”
“We are forced to leave and we don’t even know where to go,” added Mahmoud al-Gharabri, another displaced person. “We’re exhausted and completely broken.”
“Split the strip”
The military push follows the threat of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intensification of attacks and pressure Hamas to make further concessions.
“We’re splitting the strip now and increasing the pressure in stages, so they’re taking us hostages,” Netanyahu said in a video message Wednesday.
On Friday, Israeli forces continued to destroy air attacks, killing at least 30 people since dawn, according to local medical sources and Gaza’s civil defense agency. This left 112 deaths following the heavy fires date on Thursday. Most of them are women and children.
The situation inside Al Ali Hospital in Gaza, also known as the Baptist Hospital where many victims in the north were taken, “it’s not eschatological,” said Hani Mahmoud of Al Jazeera after visiting the facility.
“We see the bodies lying on the ground and counted as teens,” Mahmoud said. “We’ve seen doctors, they’re helpless. They don’t know what to do. They can’t save lives given the misery in the hospital.”
Israel resumed its attacks in Gaza on March 18, crushing a two-month ceasefire after talks with Hamas broke in the next phase of the agreement.
Netanyahu wants Hamas to free the remaining 59 Israeli prisoners in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and aid, but Israel does not promise to end the war or pull out its troops. For the final ceasefire agreement, Netanyahu argues Hamas must disarm — a request the group calls the “red line” — openly endorsing Israel’s plan to seize security controls in Gaza and drive out the Palestinians.
Hamas is seeking a return to the previously agreed three-stage ceasefire framework, offering to release all prisoners at once in return for a permanent ceasefire.
Since October 7, 2023, Israeli war in Gaza has killed 50,523 Palestinians and injured 114,638 people. At least 1,139 people were killed and more than 200 were taken prisoner in Israel during the Hamas-led attack on October 7th.
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