Israel’s military said Monday that people in eastern parts of Rafah should go to what the military called an expanded humanitarian area that now includes Khan Younis, in a move that comes ahead of a planned Israeli offensive in Rafah.
An IDF spokesperson, posting on social media in Arabic, said the Israeli military will act forcefully against terrorist organizations in Rafah, and that anyone who is in the area will be putting their lives at risk.
Israel has previously issued such warnings amid its campaign to eliminate the Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip. Many of the Palestinians in Rafah traveled there seeking shelter after Israel warned them to flee other parts of Gaza.
Maps provided by the Israeli military previously showed a humanitarian zone along the Gaza coast west of Khan Younis. Monday’s announcement expanded that area both to the north along the coast, as well as east to include Khan Younis.
Israel has said an offensive in Rafah is necessary to defeat Hamas, while the United States, United Nations and others have warned of a potential humanitarian catastrophe if Israel carries out a large-scale attack in the area where more than half of Gaza’s population is sheltering.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin highlighted the issue again in a Sunday phone call with Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
A Pentagon statement said Austin “reaffirmed his commitment to the unconditional return of all hostages and 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.”
Cease-fire negotiations
Negotiators have been trying to find a breakthrough in cease-fire talks aimed at bringing a temporary halt in fighting and the release of hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.
After no apparent progress was reported Sunday in talks with Qatari and Egyptian mediators, the Hamas delegation left Cairo to consult with its leadership and said it planned to return to Cairo Tuesday.
Earlier, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said that group wants a comprehensive cease-fire that would end Israeli “aggression” and guarantee Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, while Hamas frees about 100 hostages in exchange for hundreds of prisoners jailed by Israel.
In a statement, Haniyeh blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for “the continuation of the aggression and the expansion of the circle of conflict, and sabotaging the efforts made through the mediators and various parties” who have for weeks been unsuccessful in negotiating a cease-fire of any sort.
In Jerusalem, Netanyahu rejected any end to the fighting that would leave Hamas in control of Gaza, the narrow territory along the Mediterranean Sea, and pose a continuing threat to the Jewish state.
Israeli officials did not send negotiators to Cairo to take part in indirect diplomacy.
Netanyahu said that “while Israel has shown willingness, Hamas remains entrenched in its extreme positions, first among them the demand to remove all our forces from the Gaza Strip, end the war, and leave Hamas in power.”
“Israel cannot accept that,” he said. “Hamas would be able to achieve its promise of carrying out again and again and again its massacres, rapes and kidnapping.”
Netanyahu has pushed for a six-week cease-fire and exchange of some hostages for jailed Palestinians.
Egyptian sources said U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns, who has also been involved in previous truce talks, arrived in Cairo on Friday. The United States — which, like other Western powers and Israel, brands Hamas a terrorist group — has urged Hamas to enter a deal.
Israeli media reported that Burns, a main mediator in the talks, would meet with Netanyahu Monday.
The situation was further inflamed Sunday as Hamas launched 14 rockets from Gaza at the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza earlier Sunday, killing three Israeli soldiers and wounding a dozen others.
The armed wing of Palestinian militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the rocket attack, which led Israeli authorities to close the crossing, one of the key entry points of aid delivery to Gaza located just south of Rafah.
Palestinian health officials said Israeli airstrikes in the area Sunday killed at least 16 people.
The war was triggered by the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and led to the capture of about 250 hostages, according to Israeli officials. About 100 of the hostages were freed in a weeklong truce in late November.
Israel’s ensuring counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 34,600 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
