Israeli invasion turns Rafah into dusty, rubble-strewn ghost town

Two months ago, before Israeli troops invaded Rafah, the city sheltered most of Gaza's more than 2 million people.

Today, it is a dust-covered ghost town.

Abandoned, bullet-ridden apartment buildings have blasted out walls and shattered windows. Bedrooms and kitchens are visible from roads dotted with rubble piles that tower over the Israeli military vehicles passing by.

Israel says it has nearly defeated Hamas forces in Rafah — where at least 1.4 million Palestinians sought shelter.

The Israeli military invited reporters into Rafah on Wednesday, the first time international media visited Gaza's southernmost city since it was invaded on May 6.

Israel has banned international journalists from independent access to Gaza since 7 October and has killed one in ten Palestinian journalists and at least 100 journalists on duty since then.

Rafah population down by at least a fifth

An estimated 1.4 million Palestinians crammed into Rafah after fleeing Israeli strikes elsewhere in Gaza. The UN estimates that around 50,000 remain in Rafah, which had a pre-war population of about 275,000.

Most have moved to a nearby Israel-declared “humanitarian area” where conditions are grave. Many are clustering in squalid tent camps along the beach with scant access to clean water, food, bathrooms and medical care.

Efforts to bring aid into southern Gaza have stalled.

Israel has closed down one of two major crossings into the south of Gaza. The UN says little aid can enter from the other main crossing — Karem Abu Salem, or Kerem Shalom — because the route is too dangerous.

The longer the aid delivery is frozen, humanitarian groups say, the closer Gaza comes to running out of fuel, which is needed for hospitals, water desalination plants and vehicles.

“The hospitals are once again short on fuel, risking disruption of critical services,” said Dr Hanan Balkhy, the World Health Organization’s regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean.

"Injured people are dying because the ambulance services are facing delays due to fuel shortages.”

As the humanitarian situation worsens, Israel is pushing ahead with its offensive. Israeli invasion in Rafah is ongoing.

After journalists heard nearby gunshots on Wednesday, the soldiers told the group they would not be visiting the beach as had been planned.

The group departed the city soon after, with clouds of dust kicked up by vehicles temporarily obscuring the mass of destruction behind them.