Escalating Israeli warnings about invading Rafah, the last refuge for around a million civilians who fled Israeli forces further north earlier in the war, have nudged some families to leave for the nearby al-Mawasi coastal area or try to make their way to points further north, residents and witnesses said.
But many were confused over where they should go, saying their experience over the past 200 days of war had taught them that no place was genuinely safe.
Mohammad Nasser, 34, a father of three, said he had left Rafah two weeks ago and now lived in a shelter in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza to avoid being caught by surprise by an Israeli invasion and unable to escape.
“We escape from one trap into another, searching for places Israel calls safe before they bomb us there. It is like the rat and trap game,” he told Reuters via a chat app.
