Israel expands east Rafah, north Gaza evacuation order

Rafah. The Israeli military on Saturday ordered Palestinians to leave more areas of eastern Rafah and the northern Gaza Strip as it pressed ahead with its fight against Hamas militants.

The latest evacuation order, which some residents told AFP they had received via text and audio messages to their phones, comes days after Israeli tanks and troops entered Rafah, the Palestinian territory's southernmost city, and seized a key crossing on the Egyptian border.

Residents and displaced Gazans were told to leave parts of Rafah's Shabura refugee camp, administrative area, Jenina and Khirbet al-Adas neighbourhoods, and head to the coastal "humanitarian area" in Al-Mawasi.

Aid groups and UN officials have warned that the area was already overcrowded and not ready to receive an influx of people.

Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee posted the order in Arabic on social media platform X, saying these areas had "witnessed Hamas terrorist activities in recent days and weeks".

Images on social media showed leaflets with the latest order, which the army said in a statement it had distributed in the affected areas.

Suhaib al-Hams, a hospital director in Rafah, said in a video message to journalists that "sadly, the Kuwaiti Specialist Hospital is now included in the places threatened with evacuation."

"There is no other place for patients and injured people to go to but this hospital," Hams said, urging "immediate international protection" for the medical facility.

The Israeli army on Monday issued its first evacuation order for parts of eastern Rafah, saying it was in preparation for a widely anticipated ground assault.

Israeli officials have repeatedly vowed to sent ground troops into Rafah, where the majority of Gaza's 2.4 million people have sought shelter, saying there were four Hamas battalions in the southern city that needed to be dismantled.

Adraee said in his statement that evacuation orders were also issued to Palestinians in northern Gaza's Jabalia and Beit Lahia, areas that saw intense fighting in the early stages of the seven-month war.

"You are in a dangerous combat zone," Adraee said.

"Hamas is trying to rebuild its capabilities in the area, and therefore the IDF (army) will work with great force against terrorist organisations in the area."

Israeli forces have repeatedly targeted Jabalia and Beit Lahia, as well as other parts of northern Gaza, since the army launched its ground operation in the besieged on October 27.

Israel's massive military campaign in Gaza began after Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 34,943 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.