Israel orders more Palestinians to evacuate Rafah

In a further sign that the military is moving on with its preparations for a ground assault on Rafah, Israel issued a request on Saturday for Palestinians residing in more areas of the southern city of Rafah in Gaza to leave and relocate to what it refers to as an extended humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi.

A military spokesman also urged residents and displaced persons in the Jabalia neighborhood of northern Gaza and 11 other neighborhoods within the enclave to relocate right away to areas west of Gaza City in a post on the social media platform X.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, overnight airstrikes throughout the enclave, including Rafah, resulted in the deaths of at least 37 Palestinians, 24 of them were from central Gaza neighborhoods.

Thousands of internally displaced persons from all across the enclave have gathered into the little village of Al-Zawayda in the center of the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military claimed that during the course of the day, its planes had bombed tens of targets around the Strip and that fighters had recently been killed in Zeitoun by ground forces.

According to doctors, an Israeli attack in a house in Beit Lahiya town in the northern Gaza Strip killed at least seven people, all members of the same family.

According to the Israeli military, operations against Hamas fighters in eastern Rafah and on the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing are still ongoing.

Israel continues to remain headstrong in moving against United States and its allies’ wishes in further attacks on Rafah, an area already marked as a displacement camp for Palestine refugees.

Reports state that Washington has halted the supply of some military aid to its friend in Rafah as a result of Israeli tanks’ takeover of the key road that divides the city’s eastern and western halves on Friday. This effectively encircled the eastern side of the city.

Without eliminating thousands of Hamas fighters it believes are stationed near Rafah, Israel claims it will not be able to win the battle. According to Israeli military estimates issued on Saturday, about 300,000 Gazans have gone towards Al-Mawasi thus far.

According to Israeli estimates, a Hamas-led onslaught on southern Israel on October 7 resulted in over 1,200 fatalities and at than 250 hostages. This strike set off the war.

Currently, nearly 35,000 Palestinians have died as a result of Israel’s military assault in Gaza, the health ministry in Gaza reports. The shelling has destroyed the seaside community and resulted in a serious humanitarian situation.

The Rafah crossing, which is essential for delivering aid to Gaza, remained blocked on Saturday, according to the Palestinian WAFA news agency. Kerem Shalom, another crossing, has been closed for almost a week.

The most recent evacuation orders were given hours after it seemed like internationally mediated ceasefire negotiations were going nowhere. Hamas said that Israel’s rejection of the peace offer it had accepted had brought the situation back to zero.

The militant Palestinian faction has made hints that it was reevaluating its approach to negotiations. It stated it will confer with other allied factions but did not clarify if a review meant it would tighten its conditions for achieving a deal.

Israel claims it is not ready to stop the military offensive, but it is willing to work toward a solution where hostages would be freed in return for the release of Israeli-held Palestinian inmates.