The Al-Mawasi area, historically known for its fertile lands and fresh groundwater, has been reduced to barren terrain and a refuge of despair during the war.

Displaced Palestinian families in the Al-Mawasi area west of Rafah city are under siege by Israeli tanks amidst intense gunfire, Al-Jazeera reported on Tuesday. 

The ongoing violence has left several people injured, and desperate families have issued urgent appeals to the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations for evacuation from the area.

Video footage captured on Tuesday morning revealed scenes of displaced Palestinians taking cover near makeshift tents, seeking protection from the relentless gunfire. 

The Al-Mawasi area, historically known for its fertile lands and fresh groundwater, has been reduced to barren terrain and a refuge of despair during the war.

As part of its ongoing genocidal war in Gaza, the Israeli occupation issued orders in October for residents to evacuate to areas in southern Gaza, including Al-Mawasi, which it claimed was a “safe area” designated to receive international aid. However, upon arrival, displaced families found neither shelter nor sufficient aid.

Breaking:

This is a video from just now. People just woke up and are besieged in and outside their tents in Mawasi Rafah. 💔💔💔 pic.twitter.com/XmH4oXsrWy

— Mosab Abu Toha (@MosabAbuToha) December 17, 2024

Al-Mawasi’s infrastructure is woefully inadequate for hosting the tens of thousands of people who have sought refuge there. 

With no water, electricity, or sanitation facilities, and minimal humanitarian assistance, displaced families are enduring appalling conditions. 

Many are forced to live in overcrowded tent camps set up by the United Nations, which itself declined to recognize Al-Mawasi as a safe zone, citing the absence of basic humanitarian provisions and a lack of international oversight.

Updates, Mawasi (coastal area) of Rafah. pic.twitter.com/2Jzwxb5SEE

— Wizard Bisan (@Wizard__Bisan) December 17, 2024

Gaza Genocide

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza. 

Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7. 

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 45,059 Palestinians have been killed, and 107,041 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7, 2023.

Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip. 

Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’. 

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Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children. 

The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.  

(PC, AJA)