This Is The Emptying Of Rafah
The Guardian Weekly|May 17, 2024
Thousands of displaced Gazans are on the move again, packing their lives into carts and pickup trucks, as Israel's campaign against Hamas rages on
Jason Burke and A Tantesh
This Is The Emptying Of Rafah

Under a blazing summer sun, tens of thousands of Palestinians fled Israeli bombardment and clashes with Hamas militants in Rafah on Friday, choking roads with donkey carts, bicycles, pickup trucks and wheelchairs.

Aid officials there believe the total who have now left Gaza's southernmost city may be about 350,000, since receiving warnings early last week from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of an imminent military operation, with most moving after airstrikes and fighting intensified.

"The streets that were previously packed with [people] living in makeshift tents, most of those tents have been dismantled and people have fled. The area around the United Nations building [in the city centre] is unrecognisable... all of the people who were seeking some degree of sanctuary there have fled," said Dr James Smith, a British medic currently in Rafah.

Among those fleeing was Iyad Jarboa, an acting instructor and theatre director who left his home in eastern Rafah last Thursday with his family to seek safety in the city of Khan Younis, 10km away.

"We have been suffering since the beginning of the war, but these last nights were the most difficult of all, with bombing of all kinds everywhere and none of us able to sleep," said Jarboa, 45. "I was worried that my children and my wife would be killed, but also that if we left it too late, we would never escape."

His brother, sister-in-law and aunt have all sustained serious injuries during the conflict. "We only have two wheelchairs, so I have to carry one of them on my back and so it would be impossible to move at all if the situation worsened," Jarboa said.

There had been no panic, humanitarian officials in Rafah said, just huge numbers of people packing whatever they had in preparation for another move. Many have been displaced many times as they have fled successive Israeli military offensives across Gaza.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 17, 2024 من The Guardian Weekly.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 17, 2024 من The Guardian Weekly.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

المزيد من القصص من THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY مشاهدة الكل
Finn family murals
The Guardian Weekly

Finn family murals

The optimism that runs through Finnish artist Tove Jansson's Moomin stories also appears in her public works, now on show in a Helsinki exhibition

time-read
4 mins  |
November 08, 2024
I hoped Finland would be a progressive dream.I've had to think again Mike Watson
The Guardian Weekly

I hoped Finland would be a progressive dream.I've had to think again Mike Watson

Oulu is five hours north from Helsinki by train and a good deal colder and darker each winter than the Finnish capital. From November to March its 220,000 residents are lucky to see daylight for a couple of hours a day and temperatures can reach the minus 30s. However, this is not the reason I sense a darkening of the Finnish dream that brought me here six years ago.

time-read
3 mins  |
November 08, 2024
A surplus of billionaires is destabilising our democracies Zoe Williams
The Guardian Weekly

A surplus of billionaires is destabilising our democracies Zoe Williams

The concept of \"elite overproduction\" was developed by social scientist Peter Turchin around the turn of this century to describe something specific: too many rich people for not enough rich-person jobs.

time-read
4 mins  |
November 08, 2024
'What will people think? I don't care any more'
The Guardian Weekly

'What will people think? I don't care any more'

At 90, Alan Bennett has written a sex-fuelled novella set in a home for the elderly. He talks about mourning Maggie Smith, turning down a knighthood and what he makes of the new UK prime minister

time-read
10+ mins  |
November 08, 2024
I see you
The Guardian Weekly

I see you

What happens when people with acute psychosis meet the voices in their heads? A new clinical trial reveals some surprising results

time-read
10+ mins  |
November 08, 2024
Rumbled How Ali ran rings around apartheid, 50 years ago
The Guardian Weekly

Rumbled How Ali ran rings around apartheid, 50 years ago

Fifty years ago, in a corner of white South Africa, Muhammad Ali already seemed a miracle-maker.

time-read
3 mins  |
November 08, 2024
Trudeau faces 'iceberg revolt'as calls grow for PM to quit
The Guardian Weekly

Trudeau faces 'iceberg revolt'as calls grow for PM to quit

Justin Trudeau, who promised “sunny ways” as he won an election on a wave of public fatigue with an incumbent Conservative government, is now facing his darkest and most uncertain political moment as he attempts to defy the odds to win a rare fourth term.

time-read
3 mins  |
November 08, 2024
Lost Maya city revealed through laser mapping
The Guardian Weekly

Lost Maya city revealed through laser mapping

After swapping machetes and binoculars for computer screens and laser mapping, a team of researchers have discovered a lost Maya city containing temple pyramids, enclosed plazas and a reservoir which had been hidden for centuries by the Mexican jungle.

time-read
2 mins  |
November 08, 2024
'A civil war' Gangs step up assault on capital
The Guardian Weekly

'A civil war' Gangs step up assault on capital

Armed fighters advance into neighbourhoods at the heart of Port-au-Prince as authorities try to restore order

time-read
3 mins  |
November 08, 2024
Reality bites in the Himalayan 'kingdom of happiness'
The Guardian Weekly

Reality bites in the Himalayan 'kingdom of happiness'

High emigration and youth unemployment levels belie the mountain nation's global reputation for cheeriness

time-read
5 mins  |
November 08, 2024