IDF Orders Evacuation of Parts of Rafah Amid Invasion Speculation

By Yoni Weiss

The IDF issued orders on Monday for tens of thousands of residents in the southern Gaza city of Rafah to commence evacuations, raising speculation of an imminent ground assault.

This development complicates eleventh-hour efforts by international mediators, including the CIA, to broker a ceasefire. Both Hamas and Qatar, a key mediator, cautioned that an invasion of Rafah could jeopardize ongoing talks. Israel has identified Rafah as the last significant stronghold of Hamas after seven months of conflict, emphasizing the necessity of a ground offensive to defeat the terror group.

Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an IDF spokesperson, stated that approximately 100,000 individuals were instructed to relocate to a nearby humanitarian zone designated by Israel as Muwasi. While describing the operation as “limited in scope,” Shoshani refrained from confirming whether it marked the commencement of a broader city-wide invasion. However, in a similar move last October, Israel initiated a ground offensive without formal announcement, an operation that persists to date. This latest directive follows a deadly rocket attack by Hamas militants from the area, claiming the lives of three Israeli soldiers.

Shoshani detailed that Israel had disseminated evacuation notices through aerial leaflet drops, text messages, and radio broadcasts, alongside expanding humanitarian aid provisions in Muwasi, encompassing field hospitals, tents, food, and water. The IDF, via its social platform X, warned of “extreme force” against terrorists and urged immediate civilian evacuation for safety. Global concerns have been heightened over Israel’s plan to invade Rafah, given the potential jeopardy to over a million Palestinian civilians seeking refuge there.

Approximately 1.4 million Palestinians, constituting more than half of Gaza’s population, are densely concentrated in Rafah and its environs, having fled their homes elsewhere to evade Israeli attacks. Their precarious situation involves inhabiting overcrowded tent camps, overwhelmed U.N. shelters, or densely populated apartments, reliant on international aid amid crippled infrastructure for sanitation and medical care.

Despite persistent appeals from the United States, Israel’s staunch ally, cautioning against an invasion due to inadequate civilian protection plans, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reiterated the military’s resolve to act on Rafah, with or without a ceasefire agreement, aiming to dismantle Hamas. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant accused Hamas of insincerity in negotiations and hinted at an impending operation in Rafah following the attack on Israel’s main assistance crossing, which claimed three soldiers’ lives. Shoshani refrained from attributing the upcoming operation to Sunday’s incident and assured uninterrupted aid flow through alternate crossings.

The IDF spokesperson declined to address U.S. warnings against invasion and remained ambiguous regarding coordination with Egypt. Egypt, a strategic ally of Israel, voiced concerns that an Israeli seizure of the Gaza-Egypt border, a demilitarized zone, or attempts to push Palestinians into Egypt could jeopardize their longstanding peace treaty.

In Rafah, residents woke to Arabic flyers on Monday outlining evacuation directives and the expansion of humanitarian zones from Deir al Balah in the north to the central area of Khan Yunis city in the Gaza Strip.