Around 300,000 Gazans have so far moved to humanitarian areas
Jerusalem:
Israel on Saturday called on Palestinians in more areas of the southern Gaza city of Rafah to evacuate and head to what it calls an expanded humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi, in a further indication that the military is moving forward with its plans for a ground attack against Rafa.
In a post on the social network
According to Palestinian news agency WAFA, 24 Palestinians were killed overnight after Israeli jets struck several areas in central Gaza.
Despite heavy US pressure and alarm expressed by residents and aid groups, Israel said it would press ahead with an incursion into Rafah, where more than 1 million displaced people have sought refuge during the seven-month war.
The Israeli military said that so far, around 300,000 Gazans have advanced towards Al-Mawasi.
Israel says it cannot win the war without eradicating thousands of fighters from the Islamist Hamas movement it believes are deployed in Rafah.
Israeli tanks captured the main road dividing the eastern and western sections of Rafah on Friday, effectively encircling the eastern side in an attack that caused Washington to delay the delivery of some military aid to its ally.
The White House said on Friday it was watching the Israeli operations “with concern” but they appeared to be localized around the closed Rafah crossing and did not reflect a full-scale invasion of the city.
The war was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli data.
Israel’s military operation in Gaza, which it says aims to eliminate Hamas, has killed some 35,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The bombing devastated the coastal enclave and caused a profound humanitarian crisis.
The Biden administration said Friday that Israel’s use of U.S.-supplied weapons may have violated international humanitarian law during its operation in Gaza, in its strongest criticism yet of Israel.
But the administration stopped short of a definitive assessment, saying that due to the chaos of the war it could not look into specific cases in which the use of these weapons might be involved in alleged violations.
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