Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians crammed into the small southern Gaza border city of Rafah are being forced to contemplate being displaced once more as an Israeli offensive looms.

Those who fled to the border city, almost half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, face a terrifying choice: stay in overcrowded Rafah – once home to 280,000 people – and wait for the attack, or risk moving north through an area of continued fighting.

Large areas are occupied by tented encampments, which have encroached even on some of Rafah’s cemeteries. Aid officials have described the city as a “pressure cooker of despair”, warning that a full-scale Israeli offensive on an area so overcrowded could cause large-scale loss of civilian life, and could be a war crime.

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  • 800XL@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Based on what I’ve been told on Lemmy so far is if the IDF rolls thru a town and there is a large-scale loss of civilian life like this is called “acceptable collateral damage”. And when that happens it’s because they or their houses were in the way of: bombs, tunnels, Hamas, someone whose skin color is the same as someone in Hamas, the business side of a rifle, or a bullet.

    l’m no expert tho.

    • DdCno1@kbin.social
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      5 months ago

      Your skin color comment clearly illustrates that you are no expert. You can not tell most Israelis and Palestinians apart based on their skin color or general appearance. If you think that Western notions of race apply here, then you know less than nothing.

      • Municipal0379@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        But but……skin color is an easy attack even if it doesn’t apply! You’re ruining my cheap shot, you must be a NAZI!!! (/s just in case)

    • livus@kbin.social
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      5 months ago

      You’re hanging out in the wrong part of Lemmy if that’s what you’re being told.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    5 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians crammed into the small southern Gaza border city of Rafah are being forced to contemplate being displaced once more as an Israeli offensive looms.

    Aid officials have described the city as a “pressure cooker of despair”, warning that a full-scale Israeli offensive on an area so overcrowded could cause large-scale loss of civilian life, and could be a war crime.

    Describing the mood this week, Raed al-Nims, the media director of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Gaza, said: “Everyone is afraid of the expanding of the ground operation in Rafah.”

    The growing sense of desperation has been underlined by the fact that some of the few who have tried to leave the city for areas such as Nuseirat, central Gaza, in recent days have lost contact with family members.

    Most families who spoke to the Guardian this week indicated they would wait for an Israeli military evacuation order in the hope it would designate a safe exit route in the event of a full-scale assault.

    “Yes, I’ll move if they want to invade Rafah,” said Moamen Jarad, 25, who fled to the city earlier in the war from northern Gaza, one of the first areas attacked during the Israeli ground offensive.


    The original article contains 1,092 words, the summary contains 207 words. Saved 81%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!