1,500,000 people ‘waiting to die’ as Israel plans evacuation of last ‘safe zone’ | World News

An estimated 1.5 million Palestinians sheltering in Gaza’s southernmost city are ‘waiting to die’ in their tents.

Despair is rising after Israel’s prime minister said he intends to attack Rafah next and ordered its military to develop an evacuation plan for civilians there.

People risked ‘life and limb’ to reach the territory after four months of ground and air assault, but are now being ordered to leave.

There is nowhere further south for Gaza’s population to go, beyond breaking the border crossing and pouring into Egypt.

Rafah, the last place spared in Benjamin Netanyahu’s offensive so far, is bursting at its seams as its population has more than quintupled with people streaming in to escape fighting.

They pack by the dozens into apartments. Sidewalks are now clogged with tents full of families. Some are just sick of running from bullets and bombs.

‘We’re exhausted. Seriously, we’re exhausted. Israel can do whatever it wants. I am sitting in my tent. I’ll die in my tent,’ said Jihan al-Hawajri, who fled multiple times from the far north down the length of the Strip and now lives with 30 relatives in a tent.

Top UN officials have sounded the alarm over the potential army assault on Rafah, citing the nearly two million displaced people sheltering there and Israel’s virtually indiscriminate bombing and shooting during past operations against Gaza’s other cities during the war.

There are also more than 600,000 children in the city, in the path of Israeli assault.

Netanyahu is not only defying the uproar of the international resistance, but US orders too.

‘It is impossible to achieve the war objective of eliminating Hamas and leaving four Hamas battalions in Rafah,’ his office said in a statement.

‘On the other hand, it is clear that a massive operation in Rafah requires the evacuation of the civilian population from the combat zones.

‘That is why the prime minister directed the IDF and the defence establishment to bring to the cabinet a dual plan for both the evacuation of the population and the disbanding of the battalions.’

Yesterday, a spokesperson for the US government said it ‘would not’ support such an operation without a clear strategy for civilian protection.

Still, the White House has continued its military and diplomatic support for Israel’s campaign despite Israel shrugging off its previous calls to reduce civilian deaths.

In response to those calls, Netanyahu widened the evacuation orders as his forces moved south – yet the death toll in Gaza has continued to mount.

It is unclear where civilians would evacuate. Rafah lies trapped between Egypt to the south, the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to its east and Israeli troops to its north.

Egypt has staunchly refused any mass exodus of Palestinians onto its soil, fearing Israel will not allow them to return.

And Israel is not likely to let hundreds of thousands of Palestinians take shelter on its own territory.

This is what human rights organisations had feared for months, and that it is set to happen, their reaction was not delayed.

Amnesty International’s secretary-general Agnes Callamard said that Palestinians in Gaza must be protected against potential acts of genocide.

‘Evacuation?? BUT WHERE? There is nowhere to go to,’ she said in a social media post.

‘Amnesty is reiterating that Palestinians in Gaza are at grave risk of genocide. The international community has an obligation to act to prevent genocide.’

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