Tel Aviv – By Monday, nearly 360,000 people had been evacuated from Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip, and the number had tripled in just a few days, according to the United Nations. The Israeli Defense Forces wreaked havoc late last week, evacuation order by text messages and flyers dropped from the air to people in the eastern half of the city.
Since then, the IDF has invaded the southern part of the Palestinian territory in what the military claims is a limited and precise attack. target Hamas Armed Forces and Infrastructure.
The United States has repeatedly warned Israel not to launch large-scale ground operations in Rafah, fearing mass casualties. The White House is also working with other countries to urge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to come up with a plan to address the humanitarian crisis caused by the war, and to ask who, or who, for the so-called “next day”. There is increasing pressure to figure out who they are. What will replace Hamas as the governing body in Gaza?
Pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu increases
The Biden administration said over the weekend that Israel needs an exit plan from the war and that even if Hamas is defeated, without a viable alternative to governing Gaza, both Israel and the U.S. It once again warned that the organization it had previously designated as a terrorist organization could be designated as Hamas. Make a comeback.
“There will be a vacuum, and that vacuum will probably be filled by chaos, anarchy, and eventually again by Hamas.” Blinken spoke on CBS' “Face the Nation.” Sunday's host is Margaret Brennan. He stressed that the US “will not support” Israel's military operation in Rafah without “a credible plan to protect civilians.”
Meanwhile, there is currently a very public rift between the Israeli government and military. Senior military officials have begun publicly demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decide on someone to replace Hamas in ruling Gaza, saying that unless he does, Israeli forces could end up stuck in Gaza. .
Many families of Israeli soldiers have similar concerns. Over the weekend, a letter signed by 600 family members of current IDF soldiers called on Netanyahu's government to halt the ground offensive on Rafah, warning that it “could amount to a death trap.”
“Any reasonable person would understand that when we have been announcing and warning about entering Rafah for months, there are those who are trying to clear the ground there and harm our troops,” the families said in the letter. I understand that,” he warned.
The Biden administration has vowed not to supply weapons to what it sees as a reckless all-out military operation in Rafah, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has backed away from his pledge to carry out the attack, citing the presence of multiple Hamas battalions. is refusing. Trapped in the city.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in an overnight phone call that “precise operations in the Rafah area against remaining Hamas battalions” will be carried out in the Rafah area, according to a statement from Defense Minister Gallant's office. It provided the latest information on the war, including.
Gazans were forced to evacuate multiple times.
In the southeast corner of Rafah, the devastated neighborhood was eerily quiet Monday morning. It was abandoned after warning of Israel's impending advance.
Hundreds of thousands of people who had taken refuge in the city under previous Israeli orders were evacuated again, this time to the coastal area of ​​al-Mawashi, west of Gaza, which Israel has turned into a vast camp for displaced people. .
They may be out of the line of fire for now, but thousands of families are exposed to the elements in tents pitched on barren shorelines, far from a safe haven.
Displaced mother who lost six of her seven children 'still in shock'
Just to the north, in a makeshift camp in Deir al-Bala, Jamila Abu Jebara told CBS News she lost virtually her entire family in a nighttime Israeli airstrike just seven months ago. Her husband and six of her seven children were killed. Neighbors were only able to pull her and her 10-year-old daughter Dema from the wreckage of her home.
“The body of my 8-year-old son is still under the rubble,” she said. “I'm waiting for a ceasefire to make him withdraw.”
More than that, the now single mother said she has no plans for the future because she's “still in shock.”
“As a mother, I have to stay strong for my daughter Dema so I can take care of her and build her future. She will always be with me. But she doesn't like to go anywhere without me. She sleeps with me. “
“I wish this war would end,” her daughter Dema told CBS News.
Many Israelis have the same desire. On Sunday, Israel marked Memorial Day, commemorating fallen soldiers and the nearly 1,200 victims of Hamas' October 7 terrorist attack that sparked the current war.
However, the prime minister's remarks at the memorial came as dozens of families called on Netanyahu to agree to a deal to bring back about 100 Israelis believed to be held hostage by Hamas and other groups in the Gaza Strip. The statement was clear.
“We will continue to advance until victory,” he said, pledging to complete his mission to “destroy Hamas.”
At the Deir al-Balah camp, Abu Jebara told CBS News he wished he could have protected his six children from Israeli attacks.
“I wish I was dead and they were alive,” she said, pleading as Americans celebrated Mother's Day.
“This is a message to all mothers: Look at our lives, look at our grief. I am one of the countless mothers who have lost.”
CBS News' Tucker Rials contributed to this report.