Israel issues sweeping new evacuation orders for Rafah

Israel has issued sweeping evacuation orders covering most of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, indicating it could soon launch another major ground operation.

- ANDY GREGORY

Palestinian officials say at least 921 people have been killed in the 12 days since Israel effectively ended a two-month ceasefire by launching some of its deadliest strikes so far of the war, which was sparked by Hamas’s attack on 7 October 2023.

Last night it was also reported that the IDF killed 15 medics and emergency responders in their vehicles and then buried them in a mass grave. The Palestinian Red Crescent says the slain workers and their vehicles were clearly marked as medical and humanitarian personnel and accused Israeli troops of killing them “in cold blood”.

The dead included eight Red Crescent workers, six members of Gaza’s Civil Defense emergency unit and a staffer from UNRWA, the UN’s agency for Palestinians.

And just days after issuing evacuation orders for Gaza City, the Israeli military again ordered an evacuation yesterday – during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr – for much of the city of Rafah, which lies on the border with Egypt.

The military ordered Palestinians to head to Muwasi, a sprawl of tent camps along the coast. Israel was reported to have widened its ground operations in the Rafah over the weekend.