Al-Mawasi | |
|---|---|
| Arabic transcription(s) | |
| • Arabic | المواصي |
  Al-Mawasi Location of Al-Mawasi within Palestine | |
| Coordinates: 31°19′44″N 34°13′48″E / 31.32889°N 34.23000°E | |
| State | State of Palestine |
| Governorate | Rafah |
| Government | |
| • Type | Village council |
| Population (2006) | |
| • Total | 1,400 |
Al-Mawasi (Arabic: المواصي) is a Palestinian Bedouin town on the southern coast of the Gaza Strip, approximately one kilometer wide and fourteen kilometers long, that prior to Israel's unilateral disengagement plan in 2005 existed as a Palestinian enclave within the Katif bloc of Israeli settlements. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, al-Mawasi had a population of 1,409 in mid-year 2006.
In December 2023, during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, the Israel Defense Forces had designated Al-Mawasi as one of the only safe areas in the Gaza Strip.[1] Hundreds of thousands of people had fled there, and found only a barren strip of land with no basic resources such as food, water, or sanitation.[2] In February 2024, as the IDF announced plans to expand operations into Rafah where hundreds of thousands had come to as a last refuge, Israeli authorities called Al-Mawasi a "safer zone".[3] In an interview with Channel 4 News, Israeli spokesperson Eylon Levi, when pressed to confirm if civilians displaced northwards once more would be safe from further bombardment, stated that "it will not be safe" until Gaza was free from Hamas.[4]
