Israel Calls on Many Rafah Residents To Evacuate Ahead of Military Operation
The Israeli military ordered Palestinians in most of the southern Gazan city of Rafah to evacuate on Monday morning, warning of renewed fighting in the area. Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military’s Arabic language spokesperson, said that the military was “returning to fight with great force to eliminate the capabilities of terrorist organizations in these areas” and urged residents to relocate to the Al-Mawasi safe zone.
That order comes after a forceful Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip was restarted on March 18, following a two-month ceasefire. In the weeks since the strikes were renewed, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, the Hamas-run Health Ministry has said. Earlier this week, the UN agency for humanitarian emergencies said that nearly 150,000 Gazans had been displaced since the renewed fighting began.
This holiday season, give to:
Truth and understanding
The Media Line's intrepid correspondents are in Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Pakistan providing first-person reporting.
They all said they cover it.
We see it.
We report with just one agenda: the truth.
On Saturday, the Israeli military said it had expanded its ground operation further in Rafah. The operation is intended to destroy Hamas infrastructure and to expand a buffer zone along the borders of the Gaza Strip, the military said.
As fighting continues, international actors and Israeli activists continue to push for a ceasefire and hostage exchange deal. In an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” that aired on Saturday, freed American-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel emphasized the importance of reentering into negotiations to reach a deal.
“It’s urgent, and every day that this goes on is just more and more suffering and more and more possible death and psychological devastation” for the remaining Israeli hostages, Siegel said.
