Israel orders more Rafah evacuations, expanding military operation

In the north, the Israel Defense Forces ordered residents of Jabalya and Beit Lahia to also evacuate, warning that it would act with “great force” against Hamas militants grouping in those areas.

More than 150,000 people had already fled Rafah this week, the United Nations said, after Israeli troops staged a lightning offensive east of the city to capture the border crossing with Egypt. According to Israeli military analysts, armored brigades in eastern Rafah are encircling the city.

The widening operation was an indication that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is determined to attack Rafah, where he says Hamas has four remaining battalions, despite the potential risk to Israel’s relations with the United States.

Earlier this week, President Biden said he would halt the shipment of U.S. offensive weapons to Israel if it went into Rafah’s population centers. “I’ve made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet: They’re not going to get our support,” he said in an interview with CNN, using a nickname for Netanyahu.

But the prime minister, appearing to respond to Biden’s remarks, said Israel would “stand alone” in its fight against its enemies.

“If the U.S. administration thought that by threatening Israel, then Israel would hesitate, they were mistaken,” said Kobi Michael, an analyst at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

“There is very broad consensus not only among the political echelon, but also among the Israeli public, that the operation in Rafah must be done now,” he said.

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which it launched after a brutal attack by Hamas-led fighters, has already destroyed wide swaths of the enclave. In the northern part of the territory, a “full-blown famine” is underway, according to the World Food Program. And the Gaza Health Ministry says nearly 35,000 people have been killed, most of whom are women and children. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

After major operations in the north, the Biden administration said it wanted to see a “credible” plan to evacuate and protect civilians in Rafah, in the south, before Israeli forces stormed into the city. The White House said it expected a detailed layout of how the IDF planned to house, feed, clothe and treat the hundreds of thousands of civilians that would be leaving the area.

Instead, the IDF launched an incursion, closed two aid crossings and sent thousands fleeing — in cars, on the backs of trucks, and atop donkey-led carts — to a small, sandy stretch of land on Gaza’s coast, where relief agencies say there is little to no infrastructure to support such an influx.

“The situation is catastrophic, in every sense of the word,” said Suhaib Al-Hams, director of Rafah’s Kuwaiti Hospital. The hospital’s services are irreplaceable, he said, adding, “People will die in the streets.”

The hospital is one of Rafah’s last functioning medical centers, and on Saturday, it was included in the evacuation zone.

In effect, Israel’s Rafah offensive is already “underway,” said Yossi Kupperwasser, a former head of research at Israel’s military intelligence agency.

He said the IDF would try to operate within limits that would appease Washington. “This is the way we are going to do it,” he said, describing the operation as “gradual” with “limited forces.”

But it wasn’t clear at what point the United States would determine that Israel had invaded Rafah. On Friday, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Israel’s push so far does not indicate a “broad, large-scale invasion” of the kind that Washington has warned against.

“U.S. concerns about the Rafah population are more likely to be met by having people move out of Rafah,” said Elliott Abrams, senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

He described current U.S. policy as “self-defeating” by giving Hamas reassurance that it can stay put in Rafah and not relent on its terms in cease-fire talks.

In Al-Awda neighborhood in Rafah, the streets were emptying out Saturday, said Fadi Abu Riyala, who fled Gaza City in November. Al-Awda is just meters from the evacuation zone.

“The situation is very hard,” he said in a phone interview. “All of Rafah has evacuated. But we are still here. And I want to go but I can’t find a place to.”

Aid agencies warned that the humanitarian crisis was worsening in southern Gaza. On Saturday, the Israel side of the Kerem Shalom crossing — a key entry point for aid — was completely deserted.

“In the last three days, virtually no aid has entered Gaza, and essential items like fuel, food, and water are in dangerously short supply,” the medical charity Doctors Without Borders said in a statement.

Israel said civilians should move to Mawasi, the stretch of land near the sea that the military designated as a humanitarian zone even though it has also been shelled. More than 400,000 people are already sheltering there, the humanitarian organization said.

“Al-Mawasi is already full of people,” Abu Riyala, a father of four, said. “I can’t find a tent big enough for my family. And at the same time, there’s no transportation to take us there.”

Wartime inflation has sent prices soaring, with a tent now costing $1,000 and a short taxi ride costing hundreds of dollars, according to residents in Rafah.

“The sound of shelling is very close,” Abu Riyala said. “The children are very afraid. We are all afraid.”

The evacuation orders in the north and south on Saturday impacted around 300,000 people, according to UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees.

“You are in a dangerous combat zone,” leaflets dropped in Gaza said Saturday. “The IDF will soon act with extreme force against terrorist organizations in the region in which you are located. Everyone who is in these areas risks his life and the lives of his family members.”

Hamas also said it was engaged in battles with Israeli troops in the Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City, the focus of an Israeli operation earlier this week.

“Once we leave, they are going to enter, that’s clear,” Kupperwasser said.

After sundown Saturday, artillery fire boomed over areas of northern Gaza, and a column of tanks traveled toward the enclave. Large plumes of dust and debris rose above the Gaza skyline.

In Jabalya, residents reported intense Israeli bombardment. “The situation is very, very, very difficult,” said Eshak Daour, a local journalist, adding that people did not know where to go.

In Beit Lahia, further north, families were also loading their belongings onto horse-drawn carts.

“Now that they dropped fliers again, everyone got anxious and unsettled,” said Mahmoud Almadhoun, who runs a soup kitchen in the city. He said fuel shortages have caused one hospital to run a generator off cooking oil.

Huthfya Lafi, 34, fled Rafah after Israeli bombardments intensified in the Al-Geneina neighborhood Thursday. One of the strikes hit Lafi’s brother’s home, killing four people, including his niece.

“We quickly fled,” he said of his large family, who all lived close by. The father of three has been on the move ever since.

In Mawasi, conditions were so bad that he and his family walked to Khan Younis, and then north to Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip. He was desperate for a place to settle, but his only tent has bullet holes in it.

Israel’s claim that it had not yet launched a major operation in Rafah “is not true,” Lafi said. “I had to flee my house because shells were hitting where we lived.”

Berger reported from Jerusalem and El Chamaa from Beirut. Heidi Levine in Kerem Shalom contributed to this report.