More than a million displaced Palestinians are packed into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where families are struggling to meet basic needs as the threat of an Israeli ground invasion looms, according to a new report.
Gazan filmmaker Yousef Hammash, who has been displaced multiple times since the war between Israel and Hamas began, described the dire conditions. “There is no place that we can go,” he said. “Families are trying to manage and provide daily needs for children. But unfortunately, this mission is getting more impossible every day with the amount of people who are coming in on a daily basis.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced plans for a ground invasion of Rafah, despite international concern over the feasibility of evacuating the densely populated area. US President Joe Biden has warned that “a major military operation in Rafah should not proceed without a credible plan for ensuring the safety and support of more than 1 million people sheltering there.”
Journalist Ruth Michaelson, reporting for the Guardian, examines how Israel is justifying a potential ground assault on Rafah, the likely impact on civilians trapped there, and the responses from Israel's Western allies. The report highlights the growing humanitarian crisis in a city that has become Gaza's last refuge for hundreds of thousands of people fleeing fighting elsewhere.
