‘Where can we go?’: Israel’s Rafah evacuation order sparks global alarm

• Israel has warned Palestinians to evacuate the southern Gaza city of Rafah in the face of an imminent land escape.
• This follows the breakdown of negotiations between Israel and Hamas over the weekend amid the ongoing conflict.
• Despite international calls for Israel not to invade the territory, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead.

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Israel called on Palestinians to leave eastern Rafah on Monday ahead of a ground invasion of the southern Gaza city, amid growing global alarm over the consequences of such a move.

The evacuation call came after a disagreement between Israel and Hamas over the Palestinian militant group’s demands to end the seven-month war during weekend negotiations in Cairo.

State-linked Egyptian media said talks stalled after a rocket attack claimed by Hamas’s armed wing killed four Israeli soldiers on Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to send ground troops to Rafah regardless of any truce, defying international concerns.

US President Joe Biden and Netanyahu will speak later on Monday, the White House said.

“We have made clear to the Israeli government our views on a major ground invasion of Rafah, and the president will speak with the prime minister today,” a spokesman for the National Security Council told AFP.

“We continue to believe that a hostage agreement is the best way to preserve the lives of the hostages and prevent an invasion of Rafah, where more than a million people are sheltered.

“Those conversations are ongoing now.”

Hamas said Israel was planning a large-scale offensive “without taking into account the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe” in the besieged Gaza Strip or the fate of hostages held there.

A statement from the Palestinian presidency called on Washington to prevent a “massacre” in Rafah.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi posted on X: “Another massacre of Palestinians is underway…Everyone must act now to prevent it.”

DEVELOPMENT | Israeli army begins evacuating Palestinian civilians from Rafah, radio says

UNICEF warned that around 600,000 children crammed into Rafah face “a new catastrophe.”

Israel’s “limited” and temporary evacuation order was aimed at “getting people out of harm’s way” and came after the deadly rocket fire that the Israeli military said came from an area adjacent to Rafah.

Gaza aid and civil defense officials said Israeli planes had attacked areas of Rafah, including Al-Shuka and Al-Salam, which had been ordered to evacuate.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said “thousands” of Gazans were on the move, leaving eastern Rafah.

In a statement, the Israeli military urged residents of eastern Rafah to head to the “expanded humanitarian zone” at Al-Mawasi on the coast.

That area “includes field hospitals, tents and increased quantities of food, water, medicine and additional supplies,” he said.

But aid groups said the Israeli-designated safe zone was not prepared for an influx of people.

“The area is already overloaded and deprived of vital services,” said Norwegian Refugee Council director Jan Egeland.

The main aid group in Gaza, UNRWA, said that “an Israeli offensive in Rafah would mean more civilian suffering and deaths.”

The UN agency “is not evacuating,” he added.

Asked how many people should be moved, an Israeli military spokesman said: “The estimate is about 100,000 people.”

The Red Crescent said the designated evacuation zone is home to about 250,000 people, many of them already uprooted from other places.

Abdul Rahman Abu Jazar, 36, said the area where his family was told to seek shelter “does not have enough space for us to build tents” because it is already full.

“Where can we go?” she asked.

On Monday, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell called the evacuation orders “unacceptable” and urged Israel to “give up” on a ground offensive.

The French Foreign Ministry said it was “firmly opposed” to an offensive against Rafah.

READ ALSO | Hamas truce deal elusive as Netanyahu vows: ‘Israel will not accept Hamas demands’

The bloodiest war in Gaza’s history began after Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, which killed more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Israel estimates that 128 of the hostages kidnapped by militants on Oct. 7 remain in Gaza, including 35 who the military says are dead.

Israel, which has vowed to destroy Hamas, has carried out a retaliatory offensive that has killed at least 34,735 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s Health Ministry.

According to the World Health Organization, around 1.2 million people are taking refuge in Rafah.

repeatedly bombed

Shortly after the war began, Israel told Palestinians in northern Gaza to move south to “safe areas,” including Rafah, near the border with Egypt.

But Rafah has been bombed repeatedly – including on Monday after the evacuation order – and Palestinians say nowhere in Gaza is safe.

Emergency workers said airstrikes killed 16 people in Rafah on Sunday, hours after Hamas rocket fire killed Israeli soldiers in the Kerem Shalom border crossing area.

The attack prompted Israeli authorities to close the crossing, used to deliver aid, and in response the army said the fighter jets destroyed the launchers from which they were firing.

Al-Qahera News, linked to the Egyptian intelligence services, on Monday quoted a high-level source as saying that the rocket attack “caused truce negotiations to stall.”

‘Break down’

Despite the evacuation order, Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif al-Qanou told AFP that the movement “will continue negotiations in a positive manner.”

CIA Director Bill Burns, a mediator in the talks, was expected to meet Qatar’s prime minister in Doha for “emergency” talks, a source with knowledge of the truce negotiations told AFP.

The source, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the meeting would try to “see if talks can be resumed.”

A Hamas official close to the negotiations said Sunday that the group’s negotiators were heading from Cairo to Doha for “consultations,” after weekend talks – without any Israeli delegation present – failed to achieve a breakthrough. .

Hamas negotiators will return to Cairo on Tuesday, Al-Qahera News said.

Qatar-based Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh accused Netanyahu of sabotaging the talks, which Netanyahu’s office on Monday called “an absolute lie.”

Joost Hiltermann, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the International Crisis Group think tank, told AFP that both Hamas’ rocket fire on Sunday and Israel’s evacuation order can be considered in the context of the talks. of truce.

“Whenever there is a crisis, violence increases,” he said.