Israel strikes Gaza city of Rafah after evacuation order

[BumRushDaShow]

Last edited Mon May 6, 2024, 10:44 AM - Edit history (4)

Source: Reuters

May 6, 2024 9:52 AM EDT Updated an hour ago


RAFAH, Gaza Strip, May 6 (Reuters) - Israel's military carried out airstrikes in Rafah on Monday, residents said, hours after Israel told Palestinians to evacuate parts of the southern Gaza city where more than a million people uprooted by the war have been sheltering.

Fears are growing of a full-blown assault in Rafah, long threatened by Israel, against holdouts of the Palestinian militant group Hamas as ceasefire talks in Cairo stall. Hamas official Izzat al-Rashiq said in a statement that any Israeli operation in Rafah would put the truce talks in jeopardy.

There was no immediate comment from Israel, which Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV said had targeted areas in eastern Rafah near neighbourhoods given evacuation orders.

Instructed by Arabic text messages, phone calls, and flyers to move to what the Israeli military called an "expanded humanitarian zone" around 20 km (12 miles) away, some Palestinian families began trundling away in chilly spring rain. Some piled children and possessions onto donkey carts, while others left by pick-up or on foot through muddy streets.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/wrapup1-israel-begins-evacuating-part-rafah-ahead-threatened-assault-2024-05-06/

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Article updated.

Previous articles/headlines -

Israel strikes Gaza city of Rafah after evacuation order, say residents

May 6, 2024 8:48 AM EDT Updated 5 min ago


RAFAH, Gaza Strip, May 6 (Reuters) - Israel's military carried out airstrikes in Rafah on Monday, residents said, hours after Israel told Palestinians to evacuate parts of the southern Gaza city where more than a million people uprooted by the war have been sheltering.

Fears are growing of a full-blown assault in Rafah, long threatened by Israel, against holdouts of the Palestinian militant group Hamas as ceasefire talks in Cairo stall.

There was no immediate comment from Israel, which Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV said had targeted areas in eastern Rafah near neighbourhoods given evacuation orders.

Instructed by Arabic text messages, phone calls, and flyers to move to what the Israeli military called an "expanded humanitarian zone" 20 km (7 miles) away, some Palestinian families began trundling away under chilly spring rain. Some piled children and possessions onto donkey carts, while others left by pick-up or on foot through muddy streets.

Israel strikes Gazan city of Rafah after evacuation order, say residents

May 6, 2024 7:45 AM EDT Updated 16 min ago


RAFAH, Gaza Strip, May 6 (Reuters) - Israel's military carried out airstrikes in Rafah on Monday, residents said, hours after Israel told Palestinians to evacuate parts of the southern Gaza city where more than a million people uprooted by the war have been sheltering.

Fears are growing of a full-blown assault in Rafah, long threatened by Israel, against holdouts of the Palestinian militant group Hamas as ceasefire talks in Cairo stall.

There was no immediate comment from Israel, which Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV said had targeted areas in eastern Rafah near neighbourhoods given evacuation orders.

Instructed by Arabic text messages, phone calls, and flyers to move to what the Israeli military called an "expanded humanitarian zone" 20 km (7 miles) away, some Palestinian families began trundling away under chilly spring rain. Some piled children and possessions onto donkey carts, while others left by pick-up or on foot through muddy streets.

Israel begins evacuating part of Rafah, Hamas decries 'dangerous escalation'

May 6, 2024 5:48 AM EDT Updated 26 min ago


RAFAH, Gaza Strip, May 6 (Reuters) - Israel told Palestinians to evacuate parts of Rafah on Monday in what appeared to be preparation for a long-threatened assault on Hamas holdouts in the southern Gaza city where more than a million people uprooted by the war have been sheltering.

Instructed by Arabic text messages, telephone calls, and flyers to move to what the Israeli military called an "expanded humanitarian zone" 20 km (7 miles) away, some Palestinian families lumbered out under chilly spring rain.

Soon after midday in Gaza, several explosions were heard in east Rafah, residents and Hamas media said, with an air strike targeting some houses where lines of smoke and dust sprung up.

A senior official of Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that governs Gaza, said the evacuation order was a "dangerous escalation" that would have consequences. "The U.S. administration, alongside the occupation, bears responsibility for this terrorism," the official, Sami Abu Zuhri, told Reuters, referring to Israel's alliance with Washington.

Original article/headline -

Israel begins evacuating part of Rafah ahead of threatened assault

May 6, 2024 4:17 AM EDT Updated a min ago


RAFAH, Gaza Strip, May 6 (Reuters) - Israel called on civilians to evacuate parts of Rafah on Monday in what appeared to be preparation for a long-threatened assault on Hamas holdouts in the southern Gaza Strip city where more than a million war-displaced Palestinians have been sheltering.

Instructed by Arabic text messages, telephone calls, and flyers to move to what the Israeli military called an "expanded humanitarian zone" 20 km (7 miles) away, some Palestinian families lumbered out under chilly spring rain, witnesses said.

Israel's military said it had begun encouraging residents of Rafah to evacuate in a "limited scope" operation. It gave no specific reasons, nor did it say if any offensive action might follow.

Seven months into its war against Hamas, Israel has been threatening to launch incursions in Rafah, which it says harbours thousands of Hamas fighters and potentially dozens of hostages. Victory is impossible without taking Rafah, it says.

[SoFlaBro]

1. Why is Israel evacuating anything if they are so busy carrying out a goddamn genocide? This does not compute.

[Roy Rolling]

2. This is the Problem

What Israel are we discussing here?
—The soil, rivers, and skies within the geographic boundaries recognized as the country of Israel?
— Netanyahu the political boss of the government of that geographic state?
—The citizens who live within that geographical boundary? Or like Palestine, an Israeli exists anywhere in the world they stand?
—The IDF military of the country of Israel? Soldiers with a legitimate mission to kill enemies and not be civilian police who practice restraint?

When it’s stated “Israel does this” or “Israel does that” who or what do they mean? And don’t think conflating all of those different groups isn’t the problem.

And to a certain extent it’s the problem all over the world when we get information second or third-hand from media, Facebook, or our crazy uncle.😂

[Raven123]

4. Thank you. Conflation pervades the discourse on this topic

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Welcome to the normal way of using the English language. It means the Israeli state

which, since there's no mutiny or rebellion, means Netanyahu and the IDF. Don't worry, everyone understand this, when it's about military operations.

Sometimes, when it's opinions, it can be ambiguous - it might mean the viewpoint of the government, or of a majority of citizens, which aren't necessarily the same thing at any one moment.

[Lonestarblue]

3. All Hamas fighters who were left in Gaza have had plenty of time to escape through the tunnels.

The senior leaders were never there in the first place. They’ve been in Qatar all along, something Netanyahu and the IDF know. So how does attacking Rafah further Netanyahu’s goal of eliminating the Hamas fighters? It most likely does nothing for that goal. What it will do is result in the deaths of thousands more innocent Palestinian men, women, and children. Netanyahu is not waging war on an army, he is waging war on civilians and destroying their homes and infrastructure to make Gaza unlivable.

And then what? He still has over a million Palestinians who will refuse to leave Gaza because they know that they will never be allowed to return and their land will be taken by Israeli settlers. According to the BBC, the list of those who will have the valuable waterfront property already exists. Will world leaders then stand by and watch as Israel blocks food aid and starves Palestinians to death? I don’t think so. Bibi is creating a nightmare.

[mopinko]

5. no 1 wants to let them in, either.

i suspect this has more to do w hamas attacking aid convoys than invading.

[maxsolomon]

8. Sinwar is still in Rafah. Likely the remaining hostages, too.

The leadership outside Gaza is not the target.

Rafah is the last remaining bastion of the tunnel network, and remaining Hamas forces are concentrated there.

Either this is it; the IDF is going in, or it's ramping up pressure on Hamas to drop the "permanent" requirement for a ceasefire. Which they just did again.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Israel's "limited scope" is telling 100,000 Palestinians to move to destroyed areas or a beach

where there's no sanitation.

Footage from Associated Press shows the current situation at al-Mawasi, a tent city declared a "humanitarian zone" by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

About 100,000 people in eastern Rafah are being urged to move towards al-Mawasi and Khan Younis, ahead of a "limited scope" operation in the city.

Al-Mawasi is a narrow strip of land by the Mediterranean Sea. It has few buildings and largely consists of sandy dunes and agricultural land.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-middle-east-68963839?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=6638919a9f0e6101c57b4255%26Watch%3A%20The%20situation%20at%20al-Mawasi%20as%20Gazans%20told%20to%20leave%20Rafah%262024-05-06T09%3A22%3A17.909Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:asset:367ef82b-1277-448c-9fd3-5d4c0d3eaeea&pinned_post_asset_id=6638919a9f0e6101c57b4255&pinned_post_type=share

"It's everything we feared," James Elder, a spokesperson for the United Nation's Children's Fund (Unicef), says of Israel's order for 100,000 Palestinians to evacuate parts of Rafah.

"You now have families who have been displaced multiple times, who have endured trauma that one can’t quite comprehend," he tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme from Geneva, Switzerland.
...
But Elder insists Khan Younis - previously the focus of a months-long onslaught by the Israeli army - is not an option "because it's rubble", so many civilians will choose to go further north.

"But the picture there isn’t much better," with raw sewage flowing through the streets, he says.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-middle-east-68963839?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=663888d38d515b3cbbd0441a%26Khan%20Younis%20not%20an%20option%20for%20fleeing%20Palestinians%20-%20Unicef%262024-05-06T09%3A39%3A42.135Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:asset:a38767f5-4a45-425b-b339-29c426c4c64d&pinned_post_asset_id=663888d38d515b3cbbd0441a&pinned_post_type=share