PALESTINIANS IN RAFAH FEAR THEY ARE NEAR END OF ROAD
▶ Israel’s evacuation order pushed millions south to city now set to be target of military offensive
Palestinians who have sought refuge in Rafah say there will be nowhere safe left for them to go if Israel’s military attacks the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip.
As Israel’s military offensive on Gaza enters its fifth month, Palestinians have been pushed into ever smaller areas to seek safety from Israeli warplanes and artillery. Many are now in and around the city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, and fear they will be forced to move again.
“I don’t want to move,” said Adel Reziq, who fled to Rafah from northern Gaza. “We’ve faced numerous obstacles and we’re exhausted.”
Palestinian worries that Rafah would come under sustained attack increased last week after Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the offensive would “continue to Rafah” as he claimed the army had achieved its goals against Hamas in Khan Younis.
Thousands of people are driven towards Rafah every day.
Israeli evacuation orders cover more than two thirds of the Gaza Strip, the UN’s humanitarian agency Ocha said.
It estimated that more than half of Gaza’s prewar population of 2.3 million people are now crammed into Rafah and the makeshift camps around it. Mr Reziq said he was living in a single house with 40 members of his family.
Palestinians are facing three options, he said.
One was to return to the devastated north. The other options are to head deeper into Rafah or move closer to the Egyptian border.
A displaced Gazan said he had sought refuge near the Philadelphia corridor – a strip of land extending 14km along the border with Egypt – after being forced to move four times from northern Gaza. “We hear that Israeli forces could attack the area at any time,” he told The National. “We are worried and don’t know what the next scenario could be. There is no safe place any more. People have run out of money and food, and the next step is to end the war.”
Israeli officials are helping far-right groups to track down European diplomats in the occupied West Bank by providing details of their itinerary, a recently leaked video clip suggests.
The video shows a senior member of Israeli ultranationalist non-profit Im Tirtzu, which publicly harasses European officials in the West Bank, boasting that the group receives information on where to find diplomats from Israeli authorities.
The clip adds fuel to concerns that Israel’s emboldened far right is prepared to go to great lengths to slander, impede and even endanger the work of the international community in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Last Thursday, the US imposed sanctions on four Israeli settlers after President Joe Biden issued an executive order against those who undermine “peace, stability and security” in the West Bank.
In the video, Yohnatan Shai, Im Tirtzu’s head of Israel advocacy, tells an Israeli human rights activist that “there are people who leak information from government offices, and they leaked this information to me”.
Mr Shai goes on to describe the foreign officials, who represent many of Israel’s closest allies, as “subversive, anti-Semitic, disgraceful diplomats, who you make a living off of”.
Over the past few months, European missions have been reassessing the safety of their staff in the West Bank because of the actions of Israeli hardliners.
In September last year, armed Im Tirtzu activists pursued European diplomats across the territory, traumatising one official, who told The National that the incident had changed “the calculus and raised serious questions among western missions about their security in the West Bank”.
The missions said no help had arrived from Israeli security forces at the time, despite repeated calls. The National saw correspondence from one consulate complaining to Israeli officials about the lack of support. Im Tirtzu intercepted the group of diplomats in the West Bank, but officials say an activist from the group had been spotted earlier in the day outside the Ambassador Hotel in East Jerusalem, where Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem was delivering a briefing to the dignitaries before their departure.
The ultranationalists’ knowledge of the diplomats’ itinerary raised concerns that the details had been leaked by somebody within the Israeli government, with which foreign missions co-ordinate to ensure their security during visits to the West Bank.
At the start of the clip, Nadav Weiman of Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence asks Mr Shai about allegations that a member of Im Tirtzu had fired shots in the air while confronting the European officials during the incident in September.
Mr Shai denies this, saying the shots were fired by a Palestinian police officer. He also denies the existence of an Im Tirtzu mole in the Israeli military, but goes on to admit that people from government offices leak information to him.
Neither Im Tirtzu nor the Israeli Foreign Ministry responded to requests for comment.
The footage has emerged amid widespread concern among Israel’s allies that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government is giving cover to settler violence in the West Bank.
Mr Netanyahu’s cabinet includes high-profile settlers who have publicly supported other settlers charged with violence against Palestinians.
Israeli ultranationalists frequently criticise the work of European countries in the Palestinian territories, which receive substantial amounts of foreign aid. Diplomats frequently travel to the territories to monitor alleged human rights abuses against Palestinians.
Their work has become harder since the Gaza war, which has plunged the economy in the West Bank into crisis and sparked an increase in violence against Palestinians.
Last month, The National was told that since the war began on October 7, Israeli settlers had destroyed property donated by European countries worth at least hundreds of thousands of euros, although the true figure may be much higher.