Thousands of people have fled Rafah amid deep international concern that an Israeli military attack on Gaza’s southernmost city is imminent and a new, bloody phase in the conflict is beginning.
International leaders have scrambled to dissuade Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, from ordering a full-scale assault on the city, which aid agencies say would cause a new humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and lead to many civilian deaths.
The US, Israel’s staunchest ally, has repeatedly said it does not support an invasion of Rafah without a “credible” plan to protect civilians sheltering there.
Joe Biden spoke to Netanyahu on Monday afternoon and “reiterated his clear position” on Rafah, the White House said. No further details of the conversation were made available but Biden has explicitly opposed an attack on the city in previous such calls.
Witnesses described frightened families leaving Rafah on foot, riding donkeys, pushing trolleys or packed with their belongings into overloaded trucks hours after reading leaflets dropped by the Israeli military that told residents and displaced people in eastern neighbourhoods to leave.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had broadcast instructions through “announcements, text messages, phone calls and media broadcasts in Arabic” telling residents to head to an “expanded humanitarian zone” on the coast.
“This is an evacuation plan to get people out of harm’s way,” an Israeli military spokesperson said. “This is limited in scope and not a wide-scale evacuation of Rafah.”
Rafah has been sheltering more than a million people displaced from elsewhere in Gaza during the seven-month war and is a key logistics base for humanitarian operations across the territory. Dense tent encampments surround the city and have also already crowded al-Mawasi, the coastal zone about 3 miles north-east to which Israel has told people to evacuate.
A rocket barrage launched by Hamas on Sunday from Rafah against a military base near the Kerem Shalom checkpoint, which killed four soldiers, may have spurred the Israeli decision.
The IDF spokesperson described the evacuation as “part of our plans to dismantle Hamas … we had a violent reminder of their presence and their operational abilities in Rafah yesterday”.
Senior Israeli officials have vowed repeatedly to launch an attack on Rafah, despite strong international opposition. A new round of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas has faltered in recent days, after hopes of a ceasefire deal rose last week.
In a televised address on Sunday, Netanyahu rejected Hamas’s demands for a definitive end to the war in Gaza, saying that any permanent ceasefire would allow the Islamist organisation to remain in power and pose a continuing threat to Israel.
Israeli officials have repeatedly said a “decisive victory” requires the destruction of a substantial Hamas combat force they say is based in Rafah, and the capture or killing of top Hamas leaders thought be sheltering in tunnels under the city, possibly with dozens of hostages taken by the militant Islamist organisation during the 7 October attack on Israel that triggered the conflict.
On Monday, Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, said Hamas’s apparent refusal of the most recent proposal from mediators in the ongoing ceasefire talks meant military action in Rafah was required.
A senior Hamas official described the Israeli order for civilians to evacuate Rafah as a “dangerous escalation that will have consequences”. “The US administration, alongside the occupation, bears responsibility for this terrorism,” Sami Abu Zuhri told the Reuters news agency.
In a statement, Hamas said Palestinian militant groups, led by its military wing, the Qassam Brigades, were “ready to defend our people and defeat the enemy”.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, tweeted: “Israel’s evacuation orders to civilians in Rafah portend the worst: more war and famine. It is unacceptable … The EU, with the International Community, can and must act to prevent such scenario.”
Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, posted: “Another massacre of the Palestinians is in the making … All must act now to prevent it.”
Rafah is on the border with Egypt, and Cairo fears a massive influx of panicked refugees if Israel launches a major assault on the city. Egypt’s foreign ministry warned Israel on Monday against launching a military operation in Rafah, saying it carried “grave humanitarian risks”.
Humanitarian officials and displaced people already living in al-Mawasi describe acute overcrowding, inadequate food, limited fresh water and an almost total absence of sanitation. Israeli forces have bombarded targets in al-Mawasi at least twice in recent months.
The IDF has said it is expanding the “humanitarian zone” in al-Mawasi and providing additional tents and field hospitals.
Aid officials have long warned of massive disruption to the effort to stave off famine in Gaza in the event of a major Israeli offensive in the south. Any attack on Rafah would lead to “the collapse of the aid response”, the Norwegian Refugee Council said on Monday.
The death toll in Gaza from the Israeli military offensive is more than 34,500, mostly women and children. A reprisal strike on a house in Rafah reportedly killed at least three Palestinians. Israel accuses Hamas of using civilians as a human shield, a charge the militant Islamist organisation rejects.
The Hamas attack in October killed 1,200 mostly civilians in their homes or at a music festival in southern Israel. About 250 hostages were taken, of whom 105 were released in return for 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails during a short-lived truce in November.
Netanyahu has been under domestic pressure to make concessions to obtain the release of the hostages in Gaza but appears so far to have prioritised the demands of far-right parties, which have threatened to withdraw crucial support for his coalition if a ceasefire deal is signed now.
A Hamas delegation that arrived in Cairo on Saturday announced late on Sunday that it was leaving to consult its leadership. There has been no sign yet of a definitive response from the group to the deal proposed by mediators and accepted by Israel last week. Israel has yet to send a delegation to Cairo.
The conflict in Gaza continues to threaten broader regional violence and tensions. Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Islamist movement in Lebanon, said it had fired “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at an Israeli base in the Golan Heights.
Lebanese official media said three people had been wounded in an Israeli strike earlier on Monday in the country’s east, with the Israeli army saying it had struck a Hezbollah military compound.
Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged regular cross-border fire since war broke out in Gaza. In recent weeks, Hezbollah has increased its attacks on northern Israel, and the Israeli military has struck deeper into Lebanese territory.
On Sunday, Netanyahu’s cabinet decided to shut down Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel for as long as the war in Gaza continued, claiming the Qatari television network threatened national security.
Al Jazeera rejected the accusation as a “dangerous and ridiculous lie” that put its journalists at risk.
