Netanyahu ordered the evacuation of Rafah, a crowded Gaza site

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RAFAH, Gaza Strip – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that he had ordered the army to prepare a plan to evacuate civilians from Rafah ahead of Israel's invasion of the densely populated southern city of Gaza.

The announcement followed strong international criticism of the US, including Israel's intention to move ground forces into the city, which borders Egypt. Rafah had a pre-war population of about 280,000 and, according to the United Nations, is now home to an additional 1.4 million people who live with relatives, in shelters or in sprawling tent camps after fleeing wars elsewhere in Gaza.

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Israel says Rafah is the last stronghold of Hamas in Gaza after more than four months of fighting.

“The goal of the war to destroy Hamas cannot be achieved by keeping four Hamas battalions in Rafah,” Netanyahu's office said. “On the contrary, the intense activity in Rafah clearly requires civilians to evacuate the fighting areas.”

He said he had ordered the military and security officials to develop an “integrated plan” that would include a mass evacuation of civilians and the elimination of Hamas forces in the city.

On October 7, Israel declared war after several thousand Hamas militants crossed the border into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages. According to local health officials, Israeli air and ground attacks have killed an estimated 28,000 Palestinians, most of them women and minors. About 80% of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have been displaced and the territory is facing a humanitarian crisis due to lack of food and medical services.

Netanyahu largely dismissed international criticism of the civilian deaths, saying Hamas was responsible for endangering civilians by operating and hiding in residential areas. But that criticism has intensified in recent days as Netanyahu and other leaders have pledged to move to Rafah.

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US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that Israel's conduct in the war was the US's harshest criticism of its closest ally. The State Department said an invasion of Rafah would be “disastrous” under the current circumstances.

The operation will be difficult on many levels. It is not clear where the civilians could go. Israel's offensive has caused widespread destruction, particularly in the northern Gaza Strip, and hundreds of thousands of people have no homes to return to.

In addition, Egypt warned that any movement of Palestinians across the Egyptian border would threaten the four-decade-old peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. The mostly closed border crossing between Gaza and Egypt serves as the main entry point for humanitarian aid.

Israel has already launched airstrikes on Rafah. Overnight and Friday night, airstrikes hit two residential buildings in Rafah, and two other targets were bombed in central Gaza, including damaging a shelter that had been turned into a kindergarten for displaced Palestinians. According to AP journalists who saw the bodies arrive at the hospitals, 22 people were killed.

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GROWTH FRICTION

Comments by senior US officials on Rafah reflect growing rift with Netanyahu after US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken's visit to the region.

Blinken, who has worked with Egypt and Qatar to broker a truce between Israel and Hamas, left the region on Thursday without a deal. But he said he believed a deal could still be reached, including a long pause in fighting in exchange for the release of many of the more than 100 hostages held by Hamas.

Netanyahu appeared to offend Blinken by saying he would only agree to a “total victory.” The Israeli leader said the war would destroy Hamas' military and governance capabilities and return all hostages to their homes. With Blinken still in town, Netanyahu said Rafah needed surgery to achieve those goals. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said Thursday that “continuing such an attack without a plan and with little thought in an area home to a million people would be catastrophic.”

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the Israeli ground attack in Rafah was “not something we support.”

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Aid agency officials also warned of the possibility of a Rafah attack. “We need Gaza's last remaining hospitals, shelters, markets and water systems to function,” said Catherine Russell, head of the UN children's agency UNICEF. “Without them, hunger and disease will increase and children will die.”

In the fifth month of the war, Israeli ground forces are still focusing on the town of Khan Younis, north of Rafah, but Netanyahu has repeatedly said Rafah will be next, sparking panic among the hundreds of thousands of refugees.

AIRCRAFT AT NIGHT

Shortly after midnight on Friday, five members of the al-Sayed family, including three children and a woman, were killed in an attack on a residence near Rafah's Kuwait Hospital. A second strike in Rafah killed three more people.

Another overnight strike in the central city of Deir al-Balah killed nine people. Also, in the center of Gaza, there was a strike near a shelter that was turned into a kindergarten, and the building was damaged. Five people were killed and several others were injured. According to the witnesses, at that time the residents of the shelter were sleeping.

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When a woman carrying a little girl arrived at the local Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital, she asked, “What can we do? This is the work of a cowardly Zionist enemy who is targeting innocent civilians. Is this girl shooting rockets at Jews? May God help us.”

Some of the wounded children were treated lying on the floor.

WORKING TO STOP THE HORSE

Israel's four-month air and ground offensive — one of the deadliest in recent history — has killed 27,947 Palestinians and wounded more than 67,000, local health officials said Friday. According to the UN, the war has driven most people from their homes and driven a quarter of the population into starvation.

Biden said he would continue to work “tirelessly” to pressure Israel and Hamas to agree to a long-term ceasefire.

Netanyahu has rejected Hamas' demands for a hostage deal that would include a ceasefire and the release of hundreds of veteran Palestinian prisoners serving long sentences in Israel for deadly attacks as part of the protracted conflict. Netanyahu has dismissed Hamas's demands as delusional, even as Blinken believes it is possible to resume talks through Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

With the re-emergence of Hamas in the devastated northern Gaza Strip, the first target of the attack, Israel's war aims look increasingly difficult. Israel rescued only one hostage, while Hamas said several were killed in airstrikes or failed rescue missions.

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