Mohammad Jaber al-Absi arrived in Rafah in November thinking he would be safe.
Soon after Israel launched its retaliatory assault on the Gaza Strip on October 7, the 22-year-old al-Absi and his family were forced to flee from their home in the Jabalia refugee camp in the north and seek refuge, along with thousands of others, in the nearby Al-Fakhoura school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, which aids Palestinian refugees.
The Al-Fakhoura school soon came under attack. On November 4, an Israeli airstrike on the shelter killed at least 15 people, including two of al-Absi’s relatives, and injured dozens more. Al-Absi decided, along with his family, to move to Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, which had been designated a safe zone by the Israeli military.
The family would stay in Rafah for the next five months, initially at a warehouse in the city. With the ground invasion looming in late April, the al-Absis relocated to the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood, with tens of thousands of other families, into a tent camp.
Then came the Israeli bombs. Al-Absi and his family would become survivors of what is known as the “tent massacre” on May 26.
Even in the massacre’s wake, however, they were unable to leave Tal al-Sultan — the cost of moving around Gaza was prohibitively high. In a matter of days, after another volley of Israeli airstrikes against the city, Mohammad Jaber al-Absi and his brother Abed would end up burying 15 members of their family, including their father and five children.
“Nowhere Safe in Gaza”
The sustained Israeli attack on Rafah — and the fates of families like the al-Absis — highlight the near impossibility of finding anywhere safe in Gaza.
In early June, after the Rafah strike, the pervasive danger in Gaza was again highlighted. Israel unleashed a midday assault on Nuseirat refugee camp and Deir al-Balah, part of a hostage rescue operation that killed hundreds of Palestinians and wounded countless more. The attack’s victims in Nuseirat had been, like many in Rafah, displaced multiple times.
The stories of survivors of the “tent massacre” illustrate the long odds faced by Palestinians in Gaza, who bankrupt themselves to follow orders to repeatedly relocate themselves to areas that the Israelis say won’t be attacked, only to be attacked.
Around 1.4 million internal refugees were packed in Rafah, normally a city of 230,000 on the evening of the tent massacre, which triggered a fire; killed at least 45 people, many of them children; and wounded more than 240 others. The same insecurity that brought down Israeli bombs on a tent city in a purported safe zone, however, would also continue to shadow the survivors of Tal al-Sultan.
“Raining Shrapnel”
When Layla Samour fled her home in northern Gaza last fall, she was 37 years old and nearly nine months pregnant with her eighth child. In her state, with seven kids in tow, the journey south was daunting, but there was little left for her in the north: Her family home was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike on October 14, a week into Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Eventually, the Samours settled into the Tal al-Sultan displacement camp, near an UNRWA logistics base.
She delivered her baby in a tent at the end of October.
In the final days of April, there was increased shelling in the area, and on May 6, Israel initiated a ground invasion.
Despite warnings from the White House about protecting civilians, they approved a $1 billion arms sale to Israel on May 14, shortly after the offensive began. The International Court of Justice then ordered Israel to cease military operations in Rafah immediately.
At the tent camp in Tal al-Sultan, Israeli airstrikes hit on the evening of May 26, using U.S.-made bombs. Layla Samour, who survived the attack, described the terrifying experience of the bombing and trying to protect her children.
Samour spent a traumatic night on the streets with her children before managing to move to Khan Younis with the help of some money she secured.
However, Khan Younis was also not safe as it had been left in ruins by Israeli troops. The city faced severe shortages of essential supplies and services.
Mohammad Jaber al-Absi and his family had initially settled in a warehouse in Rafah but had to move multiple times due to Israeli attacks. They ended up in the Tal al-Sultan tent camp, where they were when the deadly airstrikes occurred on May 26.
Al-Absi and his family were unable to leave the area due to the high costs of transportation. They believed they were safe in the new displacement camp, but just two days later, another Israeli strike killed many, including 15 of al-Absi’s relatives.
The al-Absi brothers buried their family and then moved to al-Muwasi, hoping to find a safer place to stay.
Israel has designated al-Muwasi as a humanitarian area for evacuees, similar to what was done for Rafah. Unfortunately, like Rafah, al-Muwasi has also been hit with airstrikes and shelling.
“The only safe place is where my family is now,” Al-Absi said. “They were killed for the sake of safety. I envy them.”
