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, Ednews reports via Reuters.
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.