Israel orders Rafah evacuation as Gaza truce talks stall

Al Jazeera :
The Israeli army appears set to launch its long-threatened assault on Rafah as it instructs Palestinians to leave parts of the city in southern Gaza.

Israeli forces called on Monday for people in Rafah, into which huge numbers of displaced Palestinians were previously pushed, to evacuate to “an expanded humanitarian area”. The move came as Israel and Hamas blamed one another for a breakdown in truce negotiations.

The Israeli military said in social media posts that it “encourages” residents in eastern Rafah to move to an area in al-Mawasi refugee camp, located by the Mediterranean west of Khan Younis.
The army said calls to “temporarily” relocate would be “conveyed through flyers, SMS messages, phone calls and media broadcasts in Arabic”.

“[Israeli forces] will continue pursuing Hamas everywhere in Gaza until all the hostages that they are holding in captivity are back home,” it said.

In a post on X, Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee specified the appeal was to all people in the ash-Shoka area in the neighbourhoods of as-Salam, Janina, Tabet Ziraa and al-Byouk.

An Israeli military spokesperson told journalists about 100,000 people were being evacuated.

A Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, told Reuters that Israel’s evacuation order and expected offensive is a “dangerous escalation that will have consequences”.

Despite urgent warnings of a humanitarian disaster from his country’s allies, including the United States, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted for weeks that an assault on Rafah must happen.