Israel called on Saturday for Palestinians in more areas of
Gaza's southern 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
pressing ahead with its plans for a ground attack on Rafah.
In a post on social media site X, a military spokesperson
also called on residents and displaced people in the Jabalia area of northern
Gaza, and 11 other neighbourhoods in the enclave to go immediately to places
west of Gaza City.
The Palestinian health ministry said at least 37
Palestinians, 24 of them from central Gaza areas, were killed in overnight
airstrikes across the enclave, including in Rafah.
"They threw fliers on Rafah and said, from Rafah to
al-Zawayda is safe, people should evacuate there, and they did, and what has
become of them? Dismembered bodies? There is no safe place in Gaza,"
Khitam Al-Khatib, who said she had lost at least 10 of her relatives in an
airstrike on a family house earlier on Saturday, told Reuters.
Al-Zawayda is a small town in central Gaza Strip that has
been crowded by thousands of displaced people from across the enclave.
The Israeli military said its aircraft struck tens of
targets across the Strip over the past day, adding its ground troops had eliminated
fighters in Zeitoun in recent hours.
An Israeli airstrike killed at least seven people in a house
in Beit Lahiya town in the northern Gaza Strip, all from the same family,
medics said.
In Rafah, residents told Reuters the new evacuation orders
by the Israeli military covered areas in the centre of the city and left little
doubt Israel planned to expand its ground offensive there.
"The situation is very difficult, people are leaving
their homes in panic," said Khaled, 35, a resident of the Shaboura neighbourhood,
an area where the new orders to leave have been issued.
The Israeli military said it was continuing operational
activity against Hamas fighters in eastern Rafah and on the Gazan side of the
Rafah crossing.
Despite heavy US pressure and alarm expressed by
residents and humanitarian groups, Israel has said it will proceed with an
incursion into Rafah, where more than one million displaced people have sought
refuge during the seven-month-old war.
Israeli tanks captured the main road dividing
Rafah's eastern and western sections on Friday, effectively encircling the
eastern side in an assault that has caused Washington to hold up the delivery
of some military aid to its ally.
Israel says it cannot win the war without rooting out
thousands of Hamas fighters it believes are deployed in Rafah.
About 300,000 Gazans have so far moved towards Al-Mawasi,
according to Israeli military estimates released on Saturday.
Two crossing points vital for delivery of aid to Gaza were
still closed on Saturday the Palestinian WAFA news agency said the Rafah
crossing was closed for a fifth day, while another crossing, Kerem Shalom, has
been shut for around a week.
The latest evacuation orders came hours after
internationally mediated ceasefire talks appeared to be faltering,
with Hamas saying Israel's rejection of the truce offer it had accepted
returned things to square one.
The Palestinian militant group also hinted it was
reconsidering its negotiation policy. It did not elaborate on whether a review
meant it would harden its terms for reaching a deal, but said it would consult
with other allied factions.
Israel
says it wants to reach a deal under which hostages would be released in
exchange for the freeing of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, but that it
is not prepared to end the military offensive.
In Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, where hundreds
of thousands were sheltering, Palestinians mourned relatives during funerals on
Saturday.
"Here they are, in pieces, here is my sister-in-law,
without a head, my aunt is without a head, what is this injustice? Until when
will this go on? We are exhausted, by God we are exhausted, I have lived in
tents for the past seven months," said Khatib, sitting near bodies wrapped
in white shrouds bearing the names of the dead men and women.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is under
increasing pressure over its military campaign, including from longtime ally
the United States.
The Biden administration said on Friday Israel's use of US-supplied
weapons may have violated international humanitarian law during its
Gaza operation, in its strongest criticism to date of Israel.
But the administration stopped short of a definitive
assessment, saying that due to the chaos of the war it could not verify
specific instances where use of those weapons might have been involved in
alleged breaches.
