Israel has seized control of the Rafah border crossing. The consequences could be devastating for civilians.
Since the beginning of Israel’s war in Gaza, Palestinians have been pushed farther and farther south. At least 1.3 million people have now been squeezed into Rafah, a small area bordering Egypt. More than half of those people fled fighting in other parts of Gaza.
On Monday, Israeli forces dropped leaflets from the sky in Rafah instructing people to seek refuge in an “expanded humanitarian area” north and northwest of the city. The U.N. says now more than 75% of the Gaza Strip is under evacuation orders.
Less than 24 hours later, Israeli tanks rolled into the eastern part of Rafah, seizing control of the border crossing between Egypt and Gaza.
Israeli airstrikes had already been pounding Rafah for weeks, killing hundreds since late March — most of them women and children, according to hospital records.
No aid can pass through the crossing, and one of the area’s main medical centers has shut down. Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the U.N. humanitarian office, warned that if the crossing stays closed for long, “it would be a very effective way of putting the humanitarian operation in its grave.”
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Palestinians feel there’s nowhere left to go.
The Israeli military has designated an area northwest of the evacuation zone in Rafah as an “expanded humanitarian zone.”
But to many Palestinians, that promise of safety means nothing.
NPR spoke with several people fleeing from violence in Gaza, including Fatima Balah, an elderly woman who walks with a cane. “We’ve seen nothing but suffering,” she said.
AbdAlwahab Hamad works for a community-development organization in Gaza. He spoke with NPR from Rafah, saying:
“The concept of a safe-designated area has become elusive for the people of Gaza. It’s an illusion because it has been shattered. We speak about 1.3 million Palestinians living in a place smaller than Heathrow airport. [Rafah] is the last remaining sanctuary in Gaza, the last refuge. And by the way, there is no refuge.”
While the Israeli military says troops are not advancing towards the main city of Rafah in this stage of operations, there’s concern the incursion will expand.
According to James Smith, an emergency doctor in Rafah, not everyone can leave the city. People who are very ill or wounded are struggling to find treatment as the city’s health system collapses.
Several smaller hospitals in the area have begun evacuating patients “because they’re fearful of what the Israeli military might do in or around those health facilities,” Smith said.
Israel’s offensive is testing U.S. support
U.S. officials have repeatedly urged Israel to not invade Rafah. In a March interview with MSNBC, President Biden has even warned doing so would cross a “red line.”
Yet officials have not clarified the contours of that line. The administration maintains Israel’s operation in Rafah so far has not crossed that line – but the latest developments in the war could lead to a tipping point in U.S. support.
The Biden administration paused a shipment of more than 3,000 bombs to Israel last week because of concerns they could be used on Rafah. A senior administration official confirmed the pause, speaking to NPR on condition of anonymity. The administration is also reviewing whether to hold back future arms shipments, the official said.
Israeli government spokesperson Avi Hyman said the operation “is the beginning of our mission to take out the last four Hamas brigades in Rafah. You should be in no doubt about that whatsoever.”
To hear firsthand about the civilian impact of Israel’s operation in Rafah, listen to the full episode by tapping the play button at the top of the page.
Transcript:
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
On Monday, leaflets fell from the sky in southern Gaza. They were dropped by Israeli forces, and they told residents in parts of Rafah that they should evacuate – some 100,000 people. They were directed to a, quote, “expanded humanitarian area” north and northwest of the city. To many people in Rafah, that concept is meaningless.
ABDALWAHAB HAMAD: There are no safe spaces in Gaza.
SUMMERS: AbdAlwahab Hamad works for a community development organization in Gaza. He spoke to us this week from Rafah.
HAMAD: The concept of safe designated area has become elusive for the people of Gaza. It is illusion because it has just been shattered. We speak about 1.3 million Palestinians living in a place smaller than Heathrow Airport. It is the last remaining sanctuary in Gaza, the last refuge. And by the way, there is no refuge.
SUMMERS: Monday night, tanks rolled into Rafah taking control of the Palestinian side of the border crossing with Egypt. Israeli airstrikes had already been pounding the city for weeks, killing a hundred since late March, most of them women and children according to hospital records. There are at least 1.3 million Palestinians living in Rafah. More than half fled fighting in other parts of Gaza, including Hamad.
HAMAD: I’m from northern part of Gaza. I live in the north, and I have been displaced six times now. This is going to be my seventh, if I evacuated Rafah.
SUMMERS: He now lives in a refugee camp in Rafah. He says what’s happening there is somehow more than a humanitarian crisis. There’s not enough food and close to no clean water.
HAMAD: Ninety percent of Gaza’s health system has collapsed. Diseases are on the rise, particularly malaria. In Rafah now, we have more than 600,000 children in tents. It’s a city of tent. It’s a city of children.
SUMMERS: Hamad said that people are ravenous for life, even just normal life. And for a brief moment earlier this week, people in Rafah were actually celebrating.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (CHEERING)
SUMMERS: Hamas announced it had agreed to terms of a cease-fire proposed by Egypt and Qatar.
HAMAD: The moment I heard that they’re kind of reaching a deal, I was super happy. I kind of celebrated. I personally have bought sweets, like dessert. But then, an overnight shift – you know, it was – it is hilarious, ridiculous. It’s just like a dream.
SUMMERS: Israel’s government did not accept the cease-fire proposal but sent a diplomatic delegation to Egypt to continue negotiations.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SUMMERS: CONSIDER THIS – Israel says its incursion in Rafah is a precise counterterrorism operation. But possible further military action, along with the closed border crossing, could exacerbate a humanitarian catastrophe.
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SUMMERS: From NPR, I’m Juana Summers.
It’s CONSIDER THIS FROM NPR. One of the questions hanging over Israel’s operation in Rafah is this – where is President Biden’s red line?
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SUMMERS: There’s the line that his national security spokesman John Kirby used again…
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JOHN KIRBY: We don’t want to see major ground operations in Rafah that put these people at greater risk.
SUMMERS: …And again…
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KIRBY: We’ve been very clear that we don’t support a major ground operation in Rafah. Operation…
SUMMERS: …And again.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
KIRBY: I’ll just go back to what I’ve said, I don’t know, half a dozen if not more times today. We don’t support operations in Rafah that put people at greater risk.
SUMMERS: That was all at a press briefing on Monday before Israel’s incursion in Rafah. After its forces took over the border crossing, Kirby said it did not constitute a major ground invasion.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
KIRBY: The Israelis have said this operation they conducted last night was of limited duration in size and scale and scope, limited purpose. What I’ve said is, we’ve heard that, and we’re watching. We’re monitoring.
SUMMERS: There was one notable development in Biden’s relationship with Israel. NPR has confirmed reporting in Axios that the White House paused an armed shipment to Israel. A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told NPR it was due to concerns that the bombs could be used in Rafah.
Whether or not Israel’s operation in Rafah currently constitutes a major ground defensive, the evacuation is worsening a desperate situation for people living there. NPR international correspondent Aya Batrawy has been following the story, and she joins me now from Dubai. Hi.
AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: Hey.
SUMMERS: So Aya, we know that Rafah is where more than half of Gaza’s population has been sheltering and that it’s where Israel launched a ground operation on Monday. The military says that at this stage, troops are not advancing towards the main city and that they’re focused on the eastern part of Rafah. But with Israeli tanks now in parts of Rafah, what has the impact been there?
BATRAWY: Well, Rafah has a really small area bordering Egypt, but it’s become home to more than 1.4 million displaced people, half of whom are children. So this military offensive has jolted and terrified people there. They’re really concerned that this operation is just beginning and will expand. Have a listen to Israeli government spokesman Avi Hyman explaining Israel’s military goals in Rafah.
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AVI HYMAN: This is the beginning of our mission to take out the last four Hamas brigades in Rafah. You should be in no doubt about that whatsoever.
SUMMERS: Aya, you spoke today with aid workers in Rafah. Let’s have a listen in to your reporting with NPR producer Anas Baba in Gaza about what’s happening on the ground there. And I’ll warn listeners here that this report includes the sound of gunfire, as well as graphic scenes of violence.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (Yelling in non-English language).
BATRAWY: Since the October 7 attack on Israel, people in Gaza have had to pick up and move again and again and again.
FATIMA BALAH: (Non-English language spoken).
BATRAWY: From the beach road to the schools to Al-Shifa Hospital to Al Shawa (ph) to Rafah – Fatima Balah rattles off the places she’s been forced to flee. “We’ve seen nothing but suffering,” says the elderly woman, who walks with a cane. On Monday, she was among the more than 100,000 people in eastern Rafah Israel told to leave. Children piled onto donkey carts and in cars stacked high with mattresses, but most people had to walk through streets overflowing with sewage and garbage as they dragged the luggage and pushed the wounded in wheelchairs. Israel sent messages like this to get people moving.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
BATRAWY: Israel also published a grid-like map with the numbered blocks of where people should leave on social media and in flyers dropped from the sky.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
BATRAWY: “For your safety, the Israeli military orders you to evacuate immediately to the expanded humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi,” the message says, but it warns people not to head back too far north where Israeli forces have shot people trying to reach Gaza City. Less than 24 hours later, Israeli tanks rolled into Rafah.
(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).
BATRAWY: In one viral video, a tank is seen rolling over an I love Gaza sign near the Rafah crossing with Egypt. The military says troops killed Hamas gunmen in that area and found tunnel shafts. The operation, however, also shut down the Rafah border, the main artery for fuel and aid and anyone entering or leaving Gaza. Jens Laerke, spokesman for the U.N. humanitarian office.
JENS LAERKE: If no fuel comes in for a prolonged period of time, it would be a very effective way of putting the humanitarian operation in its grave.
BATRAWY: Hisham Mhanna is in Rafah with the International Committee of the Red Cross. He says severely wounded and chronically ill people are trapped, and the health system has collapsed.
HISHAM MHANNA: This is why a significant military operation in Rafah can be disastrous and would lead to absolute carnage.
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BATRAWY: The U.N. estimates that tens of thousands fled the city on Tuesday. Some headed to the scorching sandy area of Al-Mawasi, others to Central Gaza. Both areas have been bombed. Dr. James Smith, an emergency doctor in Rafah, says not everyone can leave the city, particularly those who are ill or wounded, but people who stay will struggle to find treatment.
JAMES SMITH: The European Gaza Hospital, which is to the northeast of Rafah, is completely overwhelmed already. Several of the smaller hospitals in Rafah have already started to preemptively evacuate patients because they’re fearful of what the Israeli military might do in or around those health facilities.
BATRAWY: Rafah’s main hospital was closed. It’s in the red zone where people were told to leave. Doctors Without Borders’ emergency coordinator in Gaza, Sylvain Groulx, says another hospital in Rafah is already moving its incubators and equipment to Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis, which they’re trying to salvage after an Israeli raid destroyed it. As for Khan Younis…
SYLVAIN GROULX: The city has been completely destroyed. It looks like World War II, and I’ve never seen this level of damage even in places like Mosul or Aleppo.
BATRAWY: Although the city is more devastated than any he’s seen in Iraq and Syria, he says…
GROULX: This offensive is moving very, very quickly. Time is not on our side.
BATRAWY: Just as people were leaving Rafah this week, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 13 members of the al-Dirby family sheltering in a home in an area not under evacuation orders.
(SOUNDBITE OF ZIPPER SLIDING)
BATRAWY: The body bags are baking in the heat under the sun. Rafah’s key morgue isn’t accessible. It’s part of the main hospital in the red zone. Amal al-Dirby, a matriarch in the family, names off the men, women and children lying in those body bags or still under the rubble.
AMAL AL-DIRBY: (Non-English language spoken).
BATRAWY: “They were innocent kids – just kids,” she says.
AL=DIRBY: (Non-English language spoken, crying).
(SOUNDBITE OF SHOVELS SCRAPING ON ROCK)
BATRAWY: At the site of the airstrike, rescue workers comb through the rubble using only shovels.
MOHAMMAD AL-HUMS: (Non-English language spoken).
BATRAWY: Civil defense worker Mohammad al-Hums is helping. But he says, “should I console myself or others?” He says only yesterday, his uncle, his uncle’s wife and their three children were killed in an Israeli airstrike. But he adds, there’s no time to grieve.
SUMMERS: That was NPR’s Aya Batrawy with reporting from Anas Baba in Rafah.
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SUMMERS: This episode was produced by Jordan Marie Smith, Linah Mohammad and Connor Donevan. It was edited by Courtney Dorning and James Hider. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun. And one more thing before we go, CONSIDER THIS is now also a newsletter. Just like on this podcast, we help you break down a major story of the day, but you’ll also get to know our producers and hosts. And we’ll share moments of joy from the All Things Considered team. You can sign up at np.org/considerthisnewsletter.
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SUMMERS: It’s CONSIDER THIS FROM NPR. I’m Juana Summers.
