Israel orders more evacuations
CAIRO/JERUSALEM—Israel called on Saturday for Palestinians in more areas of Gaza’s southern city of Rafah to evacuate and head to what it calls an expanded humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi, in a further indication that the military is pressing ahead with its plans for a ground attack on Rafah.
The Israeli military also called on residents and displaced people in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza to clear out, saying it was returning to operate there after it noticed Hamas trying to reestablish its control of the area.
The Palestinian health ministry said at least 37 Palestinians, 24 of them from central Gaza areas, were killed in overnight airstrikes across the enclave, including in Rafah, the Strip’s southernmost city bordering Egypt. It does not distinguish how many were civilians or militants.
“They threw fliers on Rafah and said, from Rafah to al-Zawayda is safe, people should evacuate there, and they did, and what has become of them? Dismembered bodies? There is no safe place in Gaza,” Khitam Al-Khatib, who said she had lost at least 10 of her relatives in an airstrike on a family house earlier on Saturday, told Reuters.
Airstrike
Al-Zawayda is a small town in central Gaza Strip that has been crowded by thousands of displaced people from across the enclave. Israel says it cannot win the war without rooting out thousands of Hamas fighters still deployed in Rafah.
About 300,000 Gazans have so far moved towards Al-Mawasi, according to Israeli military estimates released on Saturday.
An Israeli airstrike killed at least seven people in a house in Beit Lahiya town in the northern Gaza Strip, all from the same family, medics said. Residents said Israeli tanks have been stationed in the town.
In Rafah, where the health ministry said 16 people were killed, residents told Reuters the new evacuation orders by the Israeli military covered areas in the center of the city and left little doubt Israel planned to expand its ground offensive there.
