Refugees in Rafah will be allowed to flee to other areas of southern Gaza, officials say

TEL AVIV — Palestinian civilians sheltering in the city of Rafah will be allowed to flee to other areas of southern Gaza before an Israeli attack but will not be allowed to return to their homes in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, two Israeli officials told NBC News on Monday.

The details of the Israeli plan for an attack on Rafah, which have not been previously reported, offer a first glimpse into how Israel proposes to deal with the roughly 1.4 million Palestinians who have sought refuge in the enclave’s southernmost city after being displaced by the fighting.

Under the plan, civilians would be allowed out of Rafah into areas south of Wadi Gaza, a river valley that is considered an informal divider between the northern and southern halves of the Strip, the officials said. Speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss military planning, they said that people could go to the city of Khan Younis, to the north of Rafah, once military operations there were finished. 

The exact areas to where Palestinian civilians would be told to head — and the routes they would be told to take — have not yet been decided and will depend on conditions on the ground, the officials said. 

Israel’s military submitted its plan to evacuate civilians from Rafah to the country’s war Cabinet on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. The plan is subject to approval by the war Cabinet, which consists of Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Benny Gantz, the former chief of the general staff.

The White House has warned Israel it was opposed to an attack on Rafah without “a credible and executable plan” to get civilians out of harm’s way. It was not clear if the Israeli proposals to move civilians into other parts of southern Gaza would meet that American benchmark. 

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday that the Biden administration had not been briefed on Israel’s plan for the city.  

“What we are doing is telling our Israeli counterparts, privately, just as we are saying publicly, that we believe that this operation should not go forward until or unless we see that. We haven’t seen it, but we’re waiting to hear from the Israelis on that front,” he said. 

Nearly five months after Israel launched its military assault on Gaza in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, there is now global scrutiny on the country’s plans to move into Rafah.  

Earlier this month, Netanyahu described Rafah as “Hamas’ last bastion” and said the group’s last four fighting battalions were hiding there. He also said Israeli hostages were being held in Rafah, and within days, two hostages were rescued in the city. 

Rafah is also a last refuge to roughly 1.4 million Palestinian civilians, around half of Gaza’s population, many of whom fled there after being told by Israel’s military to relocate to the south for their own safety as its troops moved into the northern part of Gaza. 

Dense tent camps have since sprung up to house displaced people, sparking global concern among Israel’s allies, including the U.S., who have warned it to protect civilians in its battle against Hamas.

The United Nations has warned that with Egypt’s border sealed to the south and intense fighting in the neighboring city of Khan Younis, civilians in Rafah have “nowhere to go.”

Describing Rafah as the core of the humanitarian aid operation, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday that “an all-out Israeli offensive on the city would not only be terrifying for more than a million Palestinian civilians sheltering there; it would put the final nail in the coffin of our aid programs.”

The flow of aid into the enclave through its southern border with Egypt has already dwindled, and a collapse in security has made it increasingly difficult to distribute the food that does get through, according to U.N. data and officials. 

The U.N. said Monday that half as much aid reached Gaza in February as did in January. A lack of food and medicine has prompted aid agencies to warn that famine and disease could claim more lives in the enclave, where almost 30,000 people have been killed since Oct. 7, when Hamas launched multiple attacks on Israel, according to Palestinian health officials. Israeli military officials say at least 237 soldiers have been killed since the ground invasion of Gaza began.

Netanyahu said Sunday that a hostage deal would delay an attack on Rafah but that Israel would still go in after the pause in the fighting finished. “If we have a deal, it’ll be delayed somewhat. But it’ll happen. If we don’t have a deal, we’ll do it anyway. It has to be done,” he said in an interview with CBS News. 

In the crammed streets of Rafah, where tents take up almost every available space, there was little for civilians to do but follow the threats from Israeli officials over weak internet connections.  

Mounir Abou Idda, 52, said he and his family had fled from the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza in the first week of the war and had since been displaced by Israeli bombing from both Nuseirat and Khan Younis before reaching Rafah. 

“Where shall we go — to the north? To the south? No one knows,” he said.