DISPLACED GAZAN FAMILIES SET UP CAMP IN RAFAH CEMETERY
▶ Dozens sleep in makeshift tents between graves as Israel continues preparations for ground assault on enclave’s southernmost city
Displaced Gazans are seeking shelter in Rafah’s Tal Al Sultan cemetery as they brace for an Israeli assault on the city.
About 1.4 million people have sought refuge in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, having fled from fighting and Israeli air strikes elsewhere across the enclave.
“I came here because I believe this place could be the safest in all of the Gaza Strip, as there is no safe place in Gaza,” Mahmoud Ammir, who was displaced from the Beach refugee camp west of Gaza city, told The National.
He said he had begun to lose hope after hearing reports of the planned incursion into Rafah, which Israel has called the last bastion of Hamas control in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz warned on Sunday that Israeli forces would enter the city unless Hamas releases the remaining hostages it holds by the beginning of Ramadan, about March 10.
His announcement came despite widespread warnings from the international community, including the EU, the US and the UN, that any offensive in Rafah would exacerbate the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
The city had a population of about 300,000 people before the war, but is now believed to be hosting more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population.
Amid crowded conditions and the looming threat of an attack, Palestinians have sought safety inside Tal Al Sultan cemetery, where they
have put up tents to live in and tried to establish a semblance of normality amid heavy bombardment.
The cemetery, west of Rafah, has hundreds of graves, and a makeshift camp comprising dozens of tents has been set up around them.
Mr Ammir chose to move 18 members of his family from his home in northern Gaza after the Israeli army dropped leaflets telling residents to flee to the south.
He initially refused to leave, but said he decided move his family because his children were scared by Israel’s bombardment of the area.
However, he told The National, he is not at all comfortable staying in a cemetery.
“I feel there is no difference between us and those who are dead and buried in this cemetery, we are the same,” Mr Ammir said.
“Can you imagine that we are sleeping next to dead people?
My children still don’t understand that they are living beside dead people.”
Like thousands of other Gazans, Mr Ammir and his family have no access to electricity, food or water.
“I used to have a peaceful life, working all day and coming home to a roof over my head and a door I could close. But now, all we hope for is clean water to drink and something to eat to alleviate our starvation,” he said.
However, he said, the lack of buildings in the cemetery was reassuring, as it meant the Israeli military was less likely to attack the area.
Mr Ammir used to own a grocery store in the Beach camp that covered his family’s expenses.
Living in the cemetery, he no longer has the security of a normal life and is worried about wild animals attacking his children. He called for the war to stop. “I hope the world does something for us to stop the war. I hope for peace to take place, to stop the killing of people, and for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to stop,” he said.
The war began when Hamas, the militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, led an attack against southern Israeli communities on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed more than 29,000 people, mostly women and children, the enclave’s Health Ministry says.
Much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble. Israel has accused Hamas fighters of hiding among civilians and using civilian infrastructure, such as schools and hospitals, as command centres. Hamas denies these allegations.
Israel’s initial military operation focused on the northern part of the enclave, including Gaza city, but has since moved south and is now centred on the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Air strikes have hit targets throughout the crowded enclave, including in Rafah, but the city has not yet been the focus of a ground assault.
Earlier this month, almost 100 people were killed in a single night when Israel launched air strikes on Rafah in support of an operation to rescue two Israeli hostages.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused calls for a ceasefire, and this month rejected a proposed temporary truce that envisaged an exchange of the remaining hostages for Palestinians held in Israel’s prisons.