Thousands flee from Rafah as Israel steps up its assault

Israeli forces have pushed deep into Jabalia in northern Gaza – to recapture an area where they said Hamas had been dismantled weeks ago – while tanks and troops continue to move into the southern border city of Rafah.

- CHRIS STEVENSON, BEL TREW

The offensive in Jabalia, which contains a sprawling refugee camp, shows just how difficult an operation in Rafah – where more than a million Palestinians are sheltering – is likely to be. Jabalia residents fled along rubble-strewn streets carrying bags of belongings. Tank shells landed in the centre of the camp and airstrikes destroyed clusters of houses, they said. Health officials said they had recovered 20 bodies of Palestinians killed in overnight airstrikes.

Yesterday, US secretary of state Antony Blinken warned Israel that a full-scale offensive in Rafah would be likely to provoke “anarchy” without eliminating Hamas. The UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, estimated that about 360,000 people had fled Rafah since the Israeli military gave its first evacuation order a week ago.

Khaled Roumi, 33, a father of three from the al-Shaboura neighbourhood in the border city, said: “We have been hastily preparing our things to leave the place. The situation is horrible; it is difficult to control yourself.” Many are facing acute hunger due to the lack of aid deliveries that are making it into the strip in the wake of Israeli forces seizing control of the border crossing in Rafah.