The Israeli army said on Monday, May 6, it was evacuating about 100,000 people from eastern Rafah, ahead of an expected ground assault in the southern city of Gaza. "The estimate is around 100,000 people," a military spokesman told journalists when asked how many people were being evacuated.
The Israeli army called on Gazans living in eastern Rafah to head to an "expanded humanitarian area" in the Palestinian territory, ahead of an expected military operation in the southern Gaza city. "IDF (military) encourages the residents of eastern Rafah to advance towards expanded humanitarian area," the military said in a statement.
The prospect of an invasion in Rafah has triggered alarm from aid groups and world leaders. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said Israel had yet to present "a credible plan to genuinely protect the civilians who are in harm's way", and without such a plan Washington "can't support a major military operation going into Rafah."
About 1.2 million people are currently sheltering in Rafah, according to the World Health Organization, most having fled there from elsewhere in Gaza during the seven-month war between Israel and Hamas Palestinian militants.
The evacuation "is part of our plans to dismantle Hamas ... we had a violent reminder of their presence and their operational abilities in Rafah yesterday," the military spokesman said. "This is an evacuation plan to get people out of harm's way."
On Sunday, three Israeli soldiers were killed and a dozen wounded, the army said, when a barrage of rockets was fired towards the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza. The army said the rockets were fired from an area adjacent to Rafah. The soldiers were hit while guarding heavy machinery, tanks and bulldozers stationed in the area. Hamas's armed wing claimed the rocket attack, which led Israeli authorities to close the crossing, used to deliver aid into Gaza.