Israel’s order for civilians to leave Rafah is unlawful, the director of Human Rights Watch’s Israel and Palestine division said on Monday as civilians began to flee the eastern parts of the city. “There’s nowhere safe to go in Gaza,” said Omar Shakir, who was expelled from Israel in 2019 after the government claimed he supported a pro-Palestinian boycott. “To force more than one million displaced Palestinians in Rafah to again flee is unlawful and catastrophic,” he said on X, adding that the international community “must act to prevent further atrocities”.
