Families Flee in Terror as Fascist Israel Orders Mass Exodus from Rafah

Israel’s War Cabinet has finally removed the mask of claiming their country is the “most moral” in the world when it comes to war.

With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likely believing he has nothing left to lose as the United States continues its temporary, partial, and mostly meaningless pause of weapons supply to his troops, the Defense Ministry just issued its largest mass evacuation order yet in the battle of Rafah.

The first details of Israel’s latest plan for Rafah came in a post early Saturday, May 11, from IDF Arab media division head and spokesperson Avichay Adraee in the social media platform X. In it he notified those “in the Rafah and Shaboura camps, and the neighborhoods of Al-Adari, Al-Jeneina, and Khirbet Al-Adas in Blocks: 6-9, 17, 25-27, 31” that they were now officially in an IDF-designated “dangerous combat zone” and needed to move out as quickly as possible. Adraee’s message said “Hamas terrorist structures” were present there, and people needed to exit before IDF military entered.

In the same statement, Adraee notified others located in central Gaza City that they also needed to evacuate because of “Hamas terrorist structures” recently identified by the Israeli military.

The IDF statement on X, which of course would never be received by just about anyone in Rafah or Gaza City, was followed up within hours by notifications Israeli forces sent out via radio, public address system proclamations, and two major drops of leaflets by air – one in Rafah and one in Gaza City – to ensure the maximum number of people were notified as quickly as possible. The official statements precisely echoed the social media post in wording, and the leaflets incorporated a map to clarify the area which would soon be under siege by the IDF.

The means of notification and the warning messages were identical, other than with respect to the geographic region involved, to the first forced evacuation notice issued exactly a week ago for 100,000 people living portions of eastern Rafah.

Those affected in that prior “operation” were offered no assistance of any kind by Israel, and none is expected for the current one. This is despite statements from Netanyahu and others who previously implied the IDF might assist with busing them the estimated 30 kilometers (20 miles) between that part of Rafah and a new refugee tent city Israel is still building in al-Mawasi, west of Rafah located adjacent to Gaza’s Mediterranean coastline.

Initial comments from others within the IDF implied the forcible evacuation directed just issued would require tens of thousands of Palestinians to load their trucks, cars, and carts – drawn by horses and the refugees themselves -- with whatever minimal set of goods they must have and leave the area within days.

The real number of those directly affected is estimated at more than a million of the almost 1.5 million people who either consider Rafah their home or who were ordered there previously when Israel months ago lied to Gazans, telling them the southern part of the Strip would also be a protected and safe place of refuge. That larger estimate is based on an analysis of the exact region on the maps supplied by the IDF. Those maps include large neighborhoods, two major refugee camps where people sent there from the north are staying after running from northern Gaza as directed by Israeli, and at least one major hospital.

Another factor in the larger count of those expected to head out of Rafah this time is the realization of those still present in the city that last week’s limited evacuation of part of eastern Rafah was just the beginning of the end for that city and its people.

As of yesterday, estimates were that over 290,000 people had already made their way out of Rafah on their way west to what are expected to be their temporary home for an extended time.

The Doctors without Borders humanitarian agency, which has doctors, nurses and administrators on the ground in southern Gaza, calculates as many as 400,000 people from Rafah and nearby have already arrived in al-Mawasi. They also report the tent areas are already filling up, suggesting the encampment may not yet be fully prepared to handle the required total of about 1.5 million which will be forcibly relocated there by Israel.

If Israel sticks to the currently accelerated schedule it has set for the ultimate obliteration of Rafah, it will allow a few days for as many people as possible to exit central Rafah before it begins intensive bombing runs on that part of the city.

Depending on how many people depart from Rafah this week, there could be two more evacuation warnings still left, based on information Netanyahu and the IDF made available regarding the plan for Rafah a few weeks ago. One would happen on May 18, with a call to pull out from the rest of central Rafah and the western part of the city. After further shelling of those areas begins by about May 23, a final warning to anyone left would probably be issued by the Israeli Defense Forces on May 25.

All that would set the stage for an expected first wave throughout the city of aerial shelling, rocket assaults, and possibly automatic weapons fire via U.S.-supplied Apache helicopter gunships. That would be followed by door-to-door breaking into the buildings still standing in the city, in a search for what the Israeli Defense Forces are saying are Hamas’ holdout areas.

According to declarations from the IDF, thousands of its troops, specialized armored personnel carrier tanks with specialized gun turrets and mounted automatic weapons, and ground-based missile launchers are already surrounding Rafah from the outside.

Israel said previously the final stage of their attack on Rafah could last as much as a month. Netanyahu stated this week the battle is critical because Hamas has four battalions of its own remaining in Rafah, and that they must be exterminated.

The new forced evacuations were directed by Israel not long after mediators from Egypt and Qatar in Doha called off further talks on any possible ceasefire in Gaza for now. That came after a new ceasefire proposal from those mediators was first accepted by Hamas a week ago but then immediately rejected by Israel.

At the same time as this is happening, in the United States puppet Joe Biden did what many felt would never happen: he paused shipments of what his staff referred to as “offensive” munitions and weaponry to Israel. Biden and his senior staff at the National Security Council and the State Department say they have put Israel on notice that Israel does proceed with a full-scale invasion of Rafah, they may shutdown a much larger portion of Israel’s military aid.

As of May 10, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told the press Israel has not yet begun a “broad, large-scale invasion” of Rafah, based on U.S. intelligence sources.

Also on May 10, the U.S. State Department sent a report to Congress stating that it “was reasonable to assess” that Israel had indeed violated international laws using weapons and munitions the U.S. had sent to them. The report claimed it did not have sufficient information to be certain of that because Israel had not provided enough information on what is really going on in Gaza. Despite those allegations, the report said it had not discovered anything to suggest Israel had violated the terms of sale for the weapons sent to Israel.

The report also cited the “high levels of civilian casualties” in Gaza as “rais[ing] substantial questions” about Israel’s reckless use of those weapons in the war in Gaza.

As of late May 12, at least 300,000 of the up to 1 million Palestinians affected by the current IDF evacuation order have already begun making their way from Rafah to al-Mawasi. Those who have arrived report that the tents are cramped and much of what people are trying to bring with them may not fit in the new shelters. There is also no running water, power, or sanitation services in the makeshift refugee camp.