Stranded UAE residents can return from June 1

The Israeli regime is forcibly evacuating Palestinians from the eastern part of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip amid the prospect of its widely-discouraged ground invasion.

“The estimate is around 100,000 people,” an Israeli military spokesman told journalists on Monday when asked how many people were being evacuated.

International organizations, including the United Nations, have repeatedly warned the regime against invading the city, citing its hosting around 1.5 million Palestinian refugees.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a ground assault on Rafah would “put the final nail in the coffin” for humanitarian aid operations in the Gaza Strip.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also said, “Any ground operation would mean more suffering and death,” with an official saying “It could be a slaughter of civilians.”

Multiple aid agencies, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, have likewise warned against a Rafah offensive.

The NRC said such an invasion “would profoundly exacerbate the already catastrophic levels of need and the humanitarian emergency for millions of civilians with nowhere left to go.”

The official alleged Hamas had killed three Israeli forces on Sunday, attacking them from Rafah.

The evacuation order came a sat least 22 people lost their lives in the regime’s airstrikes killed in Rafah earlier on Monday.

Rafah’s evacuation “is part of our plans to dismantle Hamas,” the Israeli spokesman added, referring to the Palestinian resistance movement that has been defending Gaza in the face of the war.

The Palestinians have fled there from the ravages of a war that the regime began waging against Gaza on October 7, following a retaliatory operation by the coastal sliver’s resistance groups.

At least 34,683 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and 78,018 others injured so far during the brutal military onslaught.

On Friday, Hossam Badran, a member of Hamas’ Political Bureau, said Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence on carrying out a ground invasion of Rafah was a key stumbling block in negotiations aimed at a truce agreement.

The Israeli premier has said the regime would go ahead with invading the city “with or without” a truce.

Hamas has, however, asserted that the regime has failed to defeat the resistance during the war.

The genocidal war on Gaza launched by Israel on October 7 last year, with the support of the US and its other Western allies, completes 200 days on Tuesday, leaving behind a trail of death, destruction, displacement and starvation.

These 200 days – between October 7, 2023, and April 23, 2024 – have been marked by unprecedented crimes against the people of Gaza, especially children and women, the bombardment of hospitals and schools, abuse and torture of women and abduction of young boys.

Human rights groups and international bodies have described the harrowing events unfolding in the besieged Palestinian territory as a textbook case of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Israeli regime’s key international allies – Washington, London, Paris and Berlin – have also been at the receiving end of massive public backlash for their continued military support for the regime.

The death toll in the apartheid regime’s genocidal campaign has already topped 34,150 since October 7, more than 75 percent of them being women and children, according to the Gaza government office.

The 2.3 million people in the besieged territory continue to deal with a catastrophic humanitarian crisis amid relentless bombings and crippling siege imposed by the Israeli regime with the backing of the US.

Following are the statistics related to 200 days of war waged by the Israeli occupation on Gaza. 

200 – the number of days of the latest Israeli genocidal war on Gaza

41,183 – the total number of those killed and missing in Gaza since Oct. 7

34,183 – the total number of fatalities in Gaza since Oct. 7 (confirmed dead)

7,000 – the number of people still under the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza (presumed dead)

77,183 – the number of wounded persons in Gaza since Oct. 7

3,025 – the number of massacres committed by the regime since Oct. 7

14,778 – the number of children killed since Oct. 7

30 – the number of children who died due to starvation and famine

9,752 – the number of women killed since Oct. 7

485 – the number of doctors and paramedics killed since Oct. 7

67 – the number of civil defense personnel killed since Oct. 7

140 – the number of Palestinian journalists killed since Oct. 7

72 – the percentage of children and women killed since Oct. 7

17,000 – the number of children who have lost one or both parents since Oct. 7

11,000 – the number of injured people who need to travel for treatment

10,000 – the number of cancer patients who face the risk of death

1,090,000 – the number of people with infectious diseases due to displacement

8,000 – the number of cases of viral hepatitis due to displacement

60,000 – the number of pregnant women at risk due to lack of healthcare

350,000 – the number of chronically ill patients suffering due to lack of medicine

5,000 – the number of people arbitrarily detained in Gaza since Oct. 7

310 – the number of health practitioners who have been arrested

20 – the number of known journalists arbitrarily detained since Oct. 7

2 million – the number of displaced people in the Gaza Strip

181 – the number of government buildings destroyed since Oct. 7

103 – the number of schools and universities completely destroyed since Oct. 7

317 – the number of schools and universities partially destroyed by the occupation

239 – the number of mosques completely destroyed since Oct. 7

317 – the number of mosques partially destroyed since Oct. 7

3 – the number of churches targeted and destroyed since Oct. 7

86,000 – the number of housing units completely destroyed since Oct. 7

294,000 – the number of housing units partially destroyed since Oct. 7

75,000 – tons of explosives dropped by the occupation on Gaza since Oct. 7

32 – the number of hospitals taken out of service by the occupation since Oct. 7

53 – the number of health centers that have become non-functional since Oct. 7

160 – the number of health institutions partially or fully destroyed since Oct. 7

126 – the number of ambulances destroyed by the occupation army since Oct. 7

206 – the number of archaeological and heritage sites destroyed since Oct. 7

$30 – billions in preliminary direct losses as a result of the genocidal war on Gaza

Itamar Ben Gvir, a notorious far-right Israeli minister, has suggested that some Palestinians could be “killed” instead of being kidnapped during the savage war in Gaza.
 
The minister made remarks during an Israeli war cabinet meeting where he questioned the necessity of the detention of a large number of Palestinians.

“Why are there so many arrests? “Can’t you kill some? Do you want to tell me they all surrender? What are we to do with so many arrested? It’s dangerous for the soldiers.” Ben-Gvir was quoted as asking the Israeli military's chief of staff Herzi Halevi.

The minister also reportedly demanded that the army shoot Palestinian women and children in the besieged Palestinian territory to “protect” the Israeli forces.

Halevi briefed ministers who attended the cabinet meeting on the military campaign in Gaza and highlighted that hundreds of Palestinians had surrendered to the occupying forces.

Ben Gvir recently also called for the execution of Palestinian prisoners to ease overcrowding in the jails. The minister said that applying the death penalty to Palestinian detainees was the “right” solution to tackle the problem of prison overcrowding.

Israel soldiers have abducted more than 5,000 of Palestinians during their ongoing military campaign in Gaza.

The Gaza media office has said that Palestinian prisoners were undergoing "the worst kinds of torture" in Israeli jails.

Palestinian rights group Addameer earlier this month said Israel was holding 9,500 Palestinian political prisoners, not including those taken from the Gaza Strip.

Israel has arrested thousands of Palestinians since 7 October. Those detained, often without charge, describe regular beatings and a solitary daily meal designed simply to keep them alive.

Palestinians taken prisoner or hostage from both the West Bank and Gaza have given testimonies detailing horrific and sadistic abuse and torture by their Israeli jailers including beatings, verbal abuse, sexual abuse and rape, breaking of limbs, burns, being stripped naked, and forced drug taking.