Palestinians fled to Rafah looking for safety. Now, with a ground offensive looming, they feel trapped
Refugees wait and worry, caught between a closed border and the Israeli military
Ramzi Okasha came to Rafah from northern Gaza's Saftawi neighbourhood with his wife and two kids. It is his third displacement since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war in October, and with the Israeli Defence Forces now threatening to invade here, he has no idea where to go next.
The 50-year-old former university lecturer in business administration sits in his tent, in a refugee camp, surrounded by his wife and kids, their belongings piled along the edges. Blankets, mats, bottles of water and backpacks are all that's left for this family, who've been fleeing for their lives for close to four months.
Their journey first took them to Khan Younis back in October 2023, then to Alqsa University and finally to the southern tip of the Gaza Strip.
More than a million Palestinians have made similar journeys to Rafah, and are now running out of options, stuck between the border with Egypt and the war in the Gaza Strip. Israel is now threatening to launch a ground offensive into the 64-square-kilometre city, where it says Hamas fighters are sheltering and holding hostages. If that happens, Okasha says people aren't sure about where to go or how to get there.
"We don't have any transportation, we have nothing to move to another place," he told CBC News freelance reporter Mohamed El Saife. "So we're very afraid of this step if they take it."
Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinian Canadians are trying desperately to get their families out of Rafah before it's too late.
Since the beginning of the war, the IDF has pushed Gazans south, declaring the area near the border with Egypt a safe zone for civilians. But earlier this week, the IDF bombed parts of Rafah, killing around a hundred people.
"We heard a lot about the threats by Israel to come into Rafah and take over Rafah," Okasha said. "We don't know what to do because all of the Gaza Strip is under bombing … There is no safe place in the Gaza Strip."
Dire conditions
When the war began, Ayah Baloosha, 19, was displaced from northern Gaza with her six siblings and parents.
"At first they tell us to go to the middle of Gaza, and then they tell us to go to Rafah, and we're waiting for the next safe area," said Baloosha.
She tells CBC News she and her family are now in a holding pattern, waiting to see if a ground offensive will take place and for information about where to go next.
In the same camp, Baloosha says conditions are dire — disease is rampant and sanitary spaces are nonexistent.
"We are living in really bad humanitarian conditions," she said, also noting that the tents they're living in are so weak they don't even protect people from the elements.
"They can't save us from rockets, from bombings or even from the rain."
Throughout the war, the IDF has dropped leaflets on residents warning them of upcoming airstrikes and military offensives.
The notes were consistent in telling people to continue moving south, as the north was designated an active war zone. But the fighting was constantly on the heels of fleeing civilians, following them wherever they went, inching closer to designated safe zones and now, leaving them stuck between a closed border and bombs.
The stress of the war and the displacement has left people terrified, Baloosha says.
"We are afraid that they will bomb us and kill us in our tents without telling us where to go."
'Delays mean death'
In Toronto, AbdelAziz Abu Younis says he last spoke to his mother, Tamam Eldaghma, three months ago.
The 50-year-old says that when he has been able to reach his mom, who is sheltering in the Gaza Strip, the only message he hears is a cry for help.
"She begs me to come get her, to save her and get her out of the war."
Abu Younis says he applied for the special visa program on behalf of his mom in the hopes that she would be able to leave Gaza and go to Cairo through the Rafah border, where she would then be free to fly to Canada. But so far, he hasn't heard back.
"The delays mean death for our families," he said. "A bullet can reach any one of them at any time."
For a time, Abu Younis says Rafah was the safest place to be, but that's no longer the case. "Anything that moves in the Gaza Strip could be exposed to death."
Though members of the international community, including Canada, Australia and New Zealand, are warning Israel that a military ground offensive in Rafah would be catastrophic, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has indicated that Israel plans to press ahead anyway.
Abu Younis, who is married with two children, says the latest attacks in Rafah killed two of his cousin's children and left their father injured in Nasser Hospital, which is currently surrounded by tanks. He worries that a ground offensive would mean even more members of his family will die.
"We have a big family, between my wife and I, and right now we don't know where any of our family members are," he said. "Some are in Rafah and some are in Khan Younis, so that means that at any moment, any bombing in those areas could mean that my family would be martyred."
His voice breaks as he tells stories of what his family is facing in Gaza, and says he feels helpless to do anything sitting a world away in his Toronto living room.
"Even though her son lives in a first world country where they believe in human rights, he can't save his own mom," Abu Younis said.
"I just want to bring my mom — that's it, just one person — and I'm not able to bring her."
Back in Rafah, Okasha fears he is running out of places to go to keep his small family safe.
"We don't know what to do because all of the Gaza Strip is under bombing," he said. "There is no safe place in the Gaza Strip."
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