Israel warns 100k Gazans to evacuate Rafah

People check for usable items from building in Rafah bombed by Israel — "So many people here are displaced and now they have to move again" (Image credit: Abed Rahim Khatib / Anadolu via Getty Images)

What happened

The Israel Defense Forces on Monday ordered about 100,000 Gazans to immediately evacuate parts of Rafah that will be targeted with "extreme force" against Hamas. The Palestinian civilians were told to move to an Israel-declared humanitarian zone called Muwasi. A Hamas delegation left cease-fire negotiations in Egypt on Sunday with no deal in place, raising the chances Israel will launch a full-scale invasion of Rafah, despite international warnings.

Who said what

Israel has begun a "limited scope operation to temporarily evacuate residents in the eastern part of Rafah," IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said Monday. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned Sunday of a "powerful operation in the very near future in Rafah" following a Hamas rocket attack on the Kerem Shalom border crossing that left three IDF soldiers dead and the crossing closed to humanitarian aid.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin "expressed his condolences for the IDF soldiers killed" at Kerem Shalom in a phone call with Gallant, the Pentagon said, but he also "stressed the need for any potential Israeli military operation in Rafah to include a credible plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians and maintain the flow of humanitarian aid."

What next?

"So many people here are displaced and now they have to move again," Nidal Alzaanin, one of the 1.4 million Gazans forced to seek refuge in Rafah, said to The Associated Press, "but no one will stay here. It's not safe."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.