Israel Urges Rafah Residents to Leave Ahead of Military Operation

"The estimate is around 100,000 people," a military spokesman told journalists when asked how many people were being evacuated.

About 1.2 million people are currently sheltering in Rafah, according to the World Health Organization, most having fled there from elsewhere in Gaza during the seven-month war between Israel and Hamas Palestinian militants.

The Israeli army called on Gazans living in eastern Rafah to head to an "expanded humanitarian area" in the Palestinian territory.

"IDF (military) encourages the residents of eastern Rafah to advance towards expanded humanitarian area," the military said in a statement.

The prospect of an invasion in Rafah has triggered alarm from aid groups and world leaders. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said Israel had yet to present "a credible plan to genuinely protect the civilians who are in harm's way", and without such a plan Washington "can't support a major military operation going into Rafah."

Soon after the war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, Israel told Palestinians living in the north of Gaza to move to "safe zones" in the territory's south — including Rafah.

But Rafah has been repeatedly bombed from the air and Palestinians regularly say that no area of Gaza is safe.

"The IDF has expanded the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi to accommodate the increased levels of aid flowing into Gaza," the military statement said, referring to a coastal area near Rafah.

"This morning ... we began a limited scope operation to temporarily evacuate residents in the eastern part of Rafah," a military spokesman told journalists in an online briefing. "This is a limited scope operation."

In its statement, the military added that messages "to temporarily move to the humanitarian area will be conveyed through posters, SMS messages, phone calls and media broadcasts in Arabic."

Troops will continue to pursue Hamas militants "everywhere in Gaza until all hostages that they are holding in captivity are back home", the statement said.

'Full-blown famine' 

Netanyahu has vowed to invade Rafah regardless of whether a truce is reached, and despite concerns from the United States, other countries and aid groups.

Blinken on Friday said Israel has not presented a plan to protect civilians. Without it, "we can't support a major military operation going into Rafah because the damage it would do is beyond what's acceptable," Blinken said.

Netanyahu on Thursday vowed to "do what is necessary to win and overcome our enemy, including in Rafah."

At the start of the war, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said his country would impose a "complete siege" blocking food, water and other supplies.

Continuous appeals from aid groups, the United Nations and world leaders for greater access have led to some improvements.

Israel said the Erez crossing in north Gaza has reopened for aid entry, and assistance has arrived via the Israeli port of Ashdod.

On Friday the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA said there has been recently observed "incremental progress in access to food, water, and sanitation facilities."

But Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Programme, said in an interview excerpt published Friday: "There is famine, full-blown famine in the north and it's moving its way south."

 

Truce talks 

Talks to reach a Gaza truce were expected to resume Sunday after officials from the Hamas Islamist organisation and Israel publicly disagreed over demands to end their seven-month war.

The war's impact has been increasingly felt around the world as pro-Palestinian university students from Australia to Mexico and Europe follow the example of protest encampments set up in the United States.

Gaza's bloodiest-ever war began following Hamas's unprecedented Oct. 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,654 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

An AFP correspondent and witnesses on Sunday reported shelling and gunfire in the Gaza City area, helicopter fire in central and southern Gaza, and a missile strike on a house in the Rafah area.

The Palestinian civilian toll has strained ties between Israel and its main military supplier and ally the United States.

Nonetheless, Washington's Secretary of State Antony Blinken said "the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas."

Negotiators have proposed a 40-day pause in the fighting and an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners, according to details released by Britain.

It would be the first such truce since a week-long ceasefire saw 105 hostages released last November in exchange for Palestinians held by Israel.

 

Source: Hürriyet Daily News