Developing |: Israeli army tells Palestinians to temporarily evacuate parts of Gaza’s Rafah ahead of expected assault

An Israeli tank at a staging ground near the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, on Sunday. Photo: AP

The Israeli army has told Palestinians to begin evacuating eastern Rafah, according to an Israeli Defence Force statement on Monday, signalling that a ground invasion is imminent.

People were told to move to Muwasi, an Israeli-declared humanitarian area near the coast. The army said it had expanded assistance into the area, including field hospitals, tents, food and water.

“In accordance with the approval of the government, an ongoing situation assessment will guide the gradual movement of civilians in the specified areas, to the humanitarian areas,” the IDF said in a Telegram post.

The IDF characterised the evacuation as “temporary”, adding that calls for the relocation would be “conveyed through posters, SMS messages, phone calls and media broadcasts in Arabic”.

“The IDF will continue pursuing Hamas everywhere in Gaza until all the hostages that they are holding in captivity are back home.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has for months said that civilians in Rafah would be moved out before any attack. There are roughly 1.4 million in the city, most of who fled there after the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7.

The announcement comes amid fragile ceasefire talks and ahead of a highly anticipated ground offensive that Israel has been vowing to undertake for months to weed out the remaining Hamas militants.

On Sunday, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant claimed Hamas wasn’t serious about a deal and warned of “a powerful operation in the very near future in Rafah”.

His comments came after Hamas attacked Israel’s main crossing point Sunday for delivering assistance, killing three soldiers