The Israel Defense Forces has called on Palestinian civilians sheltering in eastern parts of Rafah, Gaza, to evacuate immediately due to impending military operations.
IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said the evacuation calls will affect an estimated 100,000 people, while another IDF spokesman, Avichay Adraee, added the civilians affected are those sheltering in “the municipality of Al-Shawka and in the neighborhoods — Al-Salam, Al-Jneina, Tiba Zaraa, and Al-Bayouk in the Rafah area.”
They are expected to travel to an encampment in the Mawasi area, on the outskirts of Khan Younis, which the IDF said will include field hospitals, tents, and large quantities of food, water, medicine, and other supplies.
Shoshani said in a briefing on Monday that it will be a “limited scope evacuation operation.”
Palestinians in Rafah were informed of the evacuation demand through flyers dropped from the air and via messages, phone calls, and broadcasts in Arabic, the IDF said.
The United States is among several countries and international entities that oppose full-scale Israeli operations in Rafah without a comprehensive plan to evacuate and safeguard the more than 1 million Palestinians who have sought refuge in the southernmost city of Gaza. It’s also the last place in Gaza where Israel has not yet carried out ground operations against Hamas.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke on Sunday evening.
“The Secretary 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,” a readout from the Pentagon said.
Gallant, according to his office, told Austin that Hamas “refuses any proposal” that includes the release of hostages and a temporary ceasefire, adding that as a result, “there was no choice left, and this meant the start of the Israeli operation in Rafah.”
Israel has held off on a ground invasion of Rafah for more than a month, seemingly at the request of the Biden administration, which has maintained it has not been shown a finalized plan for evacuations as of last week.
“We’ve been briefed on their latest thinking, but as we understand, it is not a finalized plan yet,” a U.S. official told the Washington Examiner on Friday. “Our position on a potential major ground invasion of Rafah remains the same, and we’ll continue to have these conversations with the Israelis.”
On Sunday, a Hamas delegation left Cairo, Egypt, following negotiation efforts on a ceasefire deal. The terrorist group said the discussions its representatives had with the Egyptian and Qatari mediators were “in-depth and serious.”
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Talks have stalled for several months despite Israeli concessions on some of Hamas’s demands, according to U.S. officials, many of whom urged Hamas to accept the recent proposals to prevent an Israeli ground operation of Rafah.
Also on Sunday, Hamas fired a barrage of projectiles toward the Kerem Shalom border crossing, the primary entry point for humanitarian aid, from Rafah and killed multiple IDF soldiers.