Residents of east Rafah ordered to evacuate as Israeli military prepares for invasion

Some residents of east Rafah began to evacuate their homes on Monday morning after the Occupation military ordered them to move to a “humanitarian area” in Mawasi. 

In a briefing, the military told journalists the evacuation was intended to make way for an operation of “limited scope.”

The evacuation orders come despite weeks of international pressure on Israel to limit the scope and scale of its planned attack on Rafah, specifically over how the Occupation will ensure the safety of the 1.5 million Palestinians currently sheltering in the border city.

Israel began to drop leaflets on eastern Rafah at 8 am. The flyers told residents to evacuate the Shouka municipality area and the neighborhoods of Salam, Jeneina, Tabet Zaraa and Byouk in eastern Rafah, toward an area designated by the Occupation to be an “expanded humanitarian area” in Mawasi, where at least 100,000 people are estimated to be currently living. 

Another leaflet dropped Monday morning told Rafah residents that the humanitarian area has been expanded around Mawasi northward until Deir al-Balah and further east until the center of Khan Younis. An Occupation military statement said that the extended area will include field hospitals, tents and increased amounts of food, water, medication and additional supplies.

“An ongoing situation assessment will guide the gradual movement of civilians in the specified areas in eastern Rafah to the humanitarian area,” said the statement, without giving a specific timeframe for the evacuation or providing information on the extent of the upcoming invasion in eastern Rafah.

So far, only a small number of residents have left the neighborhood to head toward the coastal Mawasi area. 

UNRWA said that it would not evacuate the area and would maintain a presence to provide people with lifesaving aid.

A 70-year-old resident of the Jeneina neighborhood told Mada Masr that she won’t obey the Israeli military under any circumstances, even if the house is bombed and falls on the heads of her and those staying with her. 

Raed, a resident of Jeneina, told Mada Masr that the residents were asked to evacuate the area as soon as possible and go west. Many residents complied, said Raed, fearing that Rafah will be subject to ground invasions like those which have already taken place in Khan Younis and the northern Gaza Strip.

Deadly ground incursions into Khan Younis and the north saw Israeli troops besiege, raid and occupy key civilian areas including the Nasser Medical Complex and the Shifa Medical Complex, in operations which killed hundreds of civilians and displaced tens of thousands.

So far, the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt remains open, the Palestinian crossing authority spokesperson told Mada Masr. However, trucks carrying aid through the Rafah commercial and Karem Abu Salem crossings have been halted since Sunday noon, the spokesperson said.

Head of the Government Media Office and Hamas official Ismail Thawebta told Mada Masr that the evacuation order is the latest of Israel’s crimes amid its aggression on the Palestinian people. Part of the aim of the genocide is to displace Palestinians from the strip, he said, noting that Monday’s evacuation order is the latest in a string of similar orders since the start of the aggression. 

Monday’s leaflet warned the residents against heading further north to Gaza City which it described as a “dangerous fighting zone.” 

Permission for hundreds of thousands of people to return to their homes in the north has been a key demand from Hamas during months-long negotiations toward a truce deal with Israel. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has also insisted on a guarantee that Israel will not invade Rafah as part of the talks.

The Israeli military did not clarify on Monday when it planned to begin ground operations in Rafah. The US administration has warned against conducting an operation without first putting in place an evacuation plan to protect the 1.5 million civilians who would be placed in danger by an attack on Rafah, saying that if Israel proceeds it will impact the US-Israeli relationship. 

US officials have said they have not yet seen a credible evacuation plan, and an American shipment of ammunition to Israel was reportedly put on hold last week, the first time weapons have been delayed since October 7.

Israeli officials, however, told the media that they plan to invade the southern area of the strip regardless of the negotiations’ outcome. Hardline officials continue to push for expediting the operation, including Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who urged the start of the invasion today on X. “The delay in entering Rafah and the loss of control over strategic assets in the Strip harm the State of Israel, harm the goals of the war, harm the chance of returning the abductees home and cost us a lot of blood.” 

“The IDF must enter Rafah today and defeat the enemy,” he added.

Israel’s military has already conducted intense bombing campaigns on areas across the strip’s south in recent days, including strikes on 11 homes in Rafah on Sunday night. At least 22 people were killed in the airstrikes, including eight children.

In a statement on Monday morning, the Israeli military claimed its fighter jets had targeted “terrorist” areas in Rafah, which the military said was in response to a Sunday attack which targetted Israeli military figures at the Karem Abo Salem border, which killed three Israeli soldiers and injured 12.

In a phone call on Sunday night, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that the Occupation has “no choice left” but to launch its operation Rafah following the Karem Abu Salem attack.