Israel orders more people in Gaza’s Rafah to evacuate

Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maytaal Angel | May 11, 2024

Israel has called for Palestinians in more areas of Gaza’s southern city of Rafah to evacuate and head to what it calls an expanded humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi in a further indication the military is pressing ahead with its plans for a ground attack.

In a post on social media site X on Saturday, a military spokesperson also called on residents and displaced people in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, and 11 other neighbourhoods in the enclave, to immediately go to the shelters west of Gaza City.

The Palestinian health ministry said at least 37 Palestinians, 24 of them from central Gaza areas, were killed in overnight air strikes across the enclave, including in Rafah.

Khitam Al-Khatib told Reuters she had lost at least 10 of her relatives in an air strike on a family house earlier on Saturday. 

“They threw flyers on Rafah and said from Rafah to al-Zawayda is safe, people should evacuate there, and they did – and what has become of them?” she said.

“Dismembered bodies? 

“There is no safe place in Gaza.” 

Al-Zawayda is a small town in the central Gaza Strip that has been crowded by thousands of the displaced from across the enclave.

The Israeli military said its aircraft struck tens of targets across the Strip in the past day, adding its ground troops had eliminated fighters in Zeitoun in recent hours.

In Rafah, residents told Reuters the new evacuation orders by the Israeli military covered areas in the centre of the city and left little doubt Israel planned to expand its ground offensive there.

The Israeli military said it was continuing precise operational activity against Hamas fighters in eastern Rafah and on the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing.

Despite heavy US pressure and alarm expressed by residents and humanitarian groups, Israel has said it would proceed with an incursion into Rafah, where more than one million displaced people have sought refuge during the seven-month-old war.

Israeli tanks captured the main road dividing Rafah’s eastern and western sections on Friday, effectively encircling the eastern side in an assault that has caused Washington to hold up the delivery of some military aid to its ally.

Israel says it cannot win the war without rooting out thousands of Hamas fighters it believes are deployed in Rafah.

About 300,000 Gazans have so far moved towards Al-Mawasi, according to Israeli military estimates released on Saturday.

The war was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7 in which some 1200 people were killed and more than 250 people taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s military operation in Gaza has killed almost 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. 

The bombardment has laid waste to the coastal enclave and caused a deep humanitarian crisis.

The latest evacuation orders came hours after internationally mediated ceasefire talks appeared to be faltering, with Hamas saying Israel’s rejection of the truce offer it had accepted returned things to square one.

The Palestinian militant group also hinted it was reconsidering its negotiation policy. 

It did not elaborate on whether a review meant it would harden its terms for reaching a deal but said it would consult with other allied factions.

Israel says it wants to reach a deal under which hostages would be released in exchange for the freeing of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, but that it is not prepared to end the military offensive.

In Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands were sheltering, Palestinians mourned relatives during funerals on Saturday.

“Here they are, in pieces, here is my sister-in-law, without a head, my aunt is without a head, what is this injustice?” said Al-Khatib, sitting near bodies wrapped in white shrouds bearing the names of the dead men and women. 

“Until when will this go on? 

“We are exhausted, by God we are exhausted – I have lived in tents for the past seven months.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government is under increasing pressure over its military campaign, including from longtime ally the US.

The Biden administration said on Friday that Israel’s use of US-supplied weapons might have violated international humanitarian law during its Gaza operation but stopped short of a definitive assessment.