Philippe Lazzarini
The claim that people in Gaza can move to "safe" or "humanitarian" areas is false. Every time, it puts civilians' lives at grave risk.
UNRWA Commissioner-General, May 18, 2024.
As the cycle of displacement continues;
Are there any safe areas in Gaza?
While Israel continues to commit atrocities against civilians in the Gaza Strip since the start of the conflict in October 2023, visual documentation of these violations remains proven evidence against impunity. Civilians in the Gaza Strip have been forced to flee attacks and targeting again and again since mid-October 2023.
Israel divided the area into blocks with specific numbers in December 2023; it keeps issuing evacuation and relocation orders as a pretext to evade responsibility for targeting civilians.
The most recent step was the Israeli forces' announcement that they had begun ground operations in eastern Rafah, in the south of the Strip, on May 6, 2024, calling on displaced people to move to the safe area. Rafah itself had been a safe area for displacement from the start of the events until the incursion was announced, and a refuge for many civilians in Gaza, who were forced by the latest incursion to flee again.
Going back to the chronology of evacuation orders, the displacement cycle since October 2023 to May 2024 can be summarized in three main cycles. The first began on October 14, 2023, when the Israeli forces issued an order calling on residents of the north of the Strip to move south of Wadi Gaza.
As evacuation leaflets kept being dropped on the north and civilians moved south, new orders were issued on December 13, 2023, asking residents of the Khan Younis area to move to Tal al-Sultan, al-Zohour and al-Shabura, and then to evacuate parts of southern Wadi Gaza towards shelters in Deir al-Balah.
On May 6, 2024, after several waves of displacement, displaced people in eastern Rafah were told to move again to the expanded humanitarian zone in al-Mawasi.
Satellite images showed a marked change in the displacement camps north of Rafah, and the movement of tents in the Tal al-Sultan area, blocks 2371 and 24372, to Khan Younis, after the Israeli forces announced through leaflets that the eastern neighbourhoods of Rafah must be temporarily emptied of residents and that people should move to the expanded humanitarian zone.
However, the Tal al-Sultan area was not among those designated for evacuation, yet it saw a major shift in the layout of the tents nine days after the announcement of the new Israeli military operations in Rafah.
By May 14, 2024, large parts of Rafah had become a "ghost city". According to a UN report, about 450,000 people from Gaza had been forcibly displaced from the far south under Israeli evacuation orders.
Parts of the farmland in the far south can also be seen bulldozed by the incursion, in addition to the destruction of residential buildings there.
The declared humanitarian zone was not the ideal place for displacement, having suffered widespread destruction in recent months.
For example, al-Mawasi, which hosts the largest number of displacement camps, is sandy farmland covering an area of 14 square kilometres in Khan Younis, where people are left in the open with few buildings or roads, or none at all.
Philippe Lazzarini , the UNRWA Commissioner-General, said that al-Mawasi was home to more than 400,000 people. The place is overcrowded and cannot hold more, as is also the case in Deir al-Balah in the central areas.
From May 6 to 12, 2024, the estimated number
of people displaced from Rafah was about 360,000 people.
From May 6 to 19, 2024, the estimated number
of people displaced from Rafah was about 815,000 people.
From May 6 to 26, 2024, the estimated number of people displaced from Rafah was about 945,000 people, with a further 100,000 people displaced in northern Gaza. Most UNRWA shelters in Rafah have been emptied, with displaced people moving to Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah.
On May 24, 2024, Israeli aircraft bombed land near the camps in the city of Asdaa in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, according to reports at the time, even though al-Mawasi lies within the so-called humanitarian zone declared to be safe.
Satellite images showed the crater formed by the strike and another crater close to it. The two craters buried a number of tents, which indicates that the attack consisted of two strikes on the same plot of land.
Slicing the attack video into frames shows the shape of the munition used, which appears similar to the SPICE munitions, which are the Israeli version of the JDAM family.
It also resembles Israel's own versions of the American MK 83 which are called MPR and which also resemble the American Paveway II family.
It cannot be determined from its general shape whether it was an American or an Israeli version; a precise identification may require access to the remains of the munition or closer images of it.
Taking a wider view of the affected area, satellite images show two additional strikes 300 metres from the strike that was documented and posted on social media.
Although the area was designated a "safe" humanitarian zone, Israeli forces continue their attacks, using as a pretext the dropping of warning leaflets before the bombing, asking displaced people to move again.
Two days after the al-Mawasi attack, on the evening of May 26, 2024, Israeli forces bombed displacement camps in the Tal al-Sultan area, in the grey zone of Rafah, which is neither an evacuation zone nor a humanitarian zone. A large number were killed and injured. UNRWA's initial reports indicated about 50 casualties among the displaced, as the strike hit the unofficial site next to UNRWA's logistics base. The UN later estimated the death toll at 200 people.
According to a statement by the Israeli spokesperson, the Israeli army used two 17 kg (37 lb) munitions in the attack on the camp in Rafah.
We are talking about munition with 17 Kilos of explosive materiel
Daniel Hagari
The remains of the munition used in the attack appeared in a video posted by a user on Telegram. They belong to one of the American SDB-GBU-39 bombs , and were part of the tail actuation system, which controls the fins that steer the bomb to its target. The use of two 17 kg (37 lb) munitions in its attack on the camp in Rafah.
One of the important details that appeared on one of the parts was the number "81873", a unique identification code assigned to the company Woodward, an aerospace manufacturer based in Colorado. Notably, by 2023 Israel had received about 1,000 GBU-39 bombs from the United States, according to SIPRI arms-transfer data.
81873
Israeli forces bombed the al-Mawasi tents west of Rafah again on May 28, 2024; dozens of displaced people were killed and injured in the attack.
An interview with a survivor of the al-Mawasi tent bombing, describing the successive cycles of displacement, which did not protect them from death either.
The damage appeared in videos filmed after the incident: some tents had collapsed, and others were damaged or torn by flying shrapnel from the projectile.
The impact was clear in recent satellite images dated May 30, 2024, in which a stain and the burial of some tents can be seen.
Looking at satellite images dated May 26, 2024, just two days before the attack, the site appears crowded with tents and displaced people. The area was a refuge for many after the incursion into Rafah was announced and warning leaflets urged people to take shelter there.
But many of those tents can be seen to have disappeared after the attack. The image was taken on June 6, 2024.
Displaced people in the Gaza Strip are still forced every day to move to areas declared safe, only to find that they are bombed in their displacement tents. The cycle of displacement had not stopped at the time of writing this investigation, nor had the attacks on the camps and the displaced. UNRWA reported that as of May 27, at least 36,050 Palestinians had been killed in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, with a further 81,026 injured.
Calls continue for a ceasefire, for life to return to its normal course, for civilians to be protected, and for all perpetrators of crimes to be held accountable.
Editor's note
This investigation is one of several open-source investigations produced by the Nawa Media team in response to coverage of the war in Gaza.
Given the rapidly escalating violence, the figures are a historical record of that time, not a reflection of the current reality.
Through these investigations, we aim to contribute to the body of indicators on war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip. For this reason, the authors of these investigations use precise, cautious language that helps support the prosecution of the perpetrators of these crimes in international courts.
The Nawa Media Team
Written by Zahra al-Qudsi
Technical support by Hussein Khalil
Visual design by Bayan Othman
General supervision by Abdulrahman Al Jaloud
Language editing by Zahraa Dirani