Israel orders Gazans to evacuate part of Rafah for 'limited' operation

Israel's military says it has begun ordering Palestinians to leave parts of eastern Rafah ahead of a "limited" operation in the southern Gaza city.

About 100,000 people are being directed to head for an "expanded humanitarian area" in Khan Younis and al-Mawasi.

After seven months of war, Israel says it must take Rafah to defeat Hamas.

But the UN and US warn that an assault on the city, where more than a million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, could have catastrophic consequences.

A senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, told the Reuters news agency that the Israeli order was "a dangerous escalation that will have consequences".

Israeli air strikes in Rafah reportedly killed at least 19 Palestinians overnight, after rockets launched from the area by Hamas fighters killed four Israeli soldiers at the nearby Kerem Shalom border crossing - the key entry point for humanitarian aid into Gaza. The crossing was closed following the attack.

There have also been reports of Israeli attacks on Rafah, hours after the evacuation order was issued.

Meanwhile, the latest efforts for a new ceasefire and hostage release deal have stalled, with both Israel and Hamas saying they would not give ground on key demands. Hamas wants a permanent end to the war, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he cannot accept.

Mediators said they were continuing their efforts.

In an initial briefing to journalists on Monday morning, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Lt Col Nadav Shoshani stressed that the operation planned in Rafah was of "limited scope".

He said that no timeframe had been announced and that the evacuation affecting an estimated 100,000 people would be carried out in "a gradual way".

The IDF is using text messages, flyers and social media to tell people to move.

One of the Arabic flyers dropped by aircraft features a map that identifies nine area blocks in south-eastern Rafah, where the IDF says it will "be operating against the terrorist organisations". They include al-Shuka, al-Salam, al-Janina and al-Yarmouk, as well as farmland near Kerem Shalom.

The flyer instructs residents of those areas to evacuate immediately and head towards an area stretching north along the Mediterranean coast from al-Mawasi - a thin strip of agricultural land that has long been an IDF-designated "humanitarian zone" - to Khan Younis and the central town of Deir al-Balah.

The IDF said the expanded humanitarian area included "field hospitals, tents and increased amounts of food, water, medication and additional supplies".

"An ongoing situation assessment will guide the gradual movement of civilians in the specified areas, to the humanitarian area," it added.

Such messages are unlikely to allay the fears of those living in the city that a wider offensive is on the cards.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which runs the largest humanitarian organisation in Gaza, said the "consequences would be devastating for 1.4 million people" in Rafah.

The organisation added in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that it would not evacuate and would maintain a presence in the city "as long as possible and will continue providing life-saving aid to people".

Ghada el-Kurd, a Palestinian mother-of-two who has been displaced six times over the last four months, told the BBC that she was sheltering only 15 minutes away from one of the areas included in the evacuation order, but was staying put for now.

"I'm so confused, just to be honest. I have no place to go. This was the last place I know," she said.

"If I want to come back to Khan Younis, there is no place - it is all destroyed. [As for] areas of al-Mawasi, they are crowded and I cannot any more live inside a tent."

"Regarding Deir al-Balah and Nuseirat [refugee camp], still there is a lot of air strikes there... and it is a very dangerous area."

James Elder, a spokesman for the UN children's agency, Unicef, who was in Gaza last month, said families now had no choice but to head towards areas that were already overcrowded and lacked basic facilities.

"They will move because they will move or be bombed. But they will move to places where there is no water - not a little bit of water, but no water - and no sanitation," he told the BBC.

For months, Mr Netanyahu has been insisting that victory against Hamas cannot be won without a full-scale offensive in Rafah.

Israel says Rafah harbours four remaining Hamas battalions, amounting to thousands of fighters.

The European Union's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, called Monday's evacuation order "unacceptable".

"The EU, with the international community, can and must act to prevent such scenario," he wrote on X.

US President Joe Biden spoke with Mr Netanyahu abut Rafah by phone on Monday. No details of the call have yet been released.

Officials from Israel and its closest ally, the US, have been holding meetings to discuss alternative, more focused plans. It is not clear if the new evacuation orders are part of those.

In Israel, some families of hostages expressed their fear about what a Rafah operation might mean for their loved ones.

"We are very much afraid that the IDF entering Rafah will risk the lives not only of innocent people, not only of soldiers, but also of some hostages," said Gil Dickmann, whose two cousins were taken hostage on 7 October, one of whom was released and the other remains in captivity.

The current war began when Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages.

The Israeli response has seen intense bombardment of all parts of Gaza from the air and a ground invasion that has seen troops take control of most of the territory before withdrawing most troops. More than 34,735 Palestinians have been killed, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

A deal agreed in November saw Hamas release 105 hostages in return for a week-long ceasefire and some 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Israel says 128 hostages remain unaccounted for in Gaza, at least 34 of whom are presumed dead.