Israel strikes Gaza after fresh Rafah evacuation order
— Israel launched further strikes on Gaza Sunday after it expanded an evacuation order for Rafah, with the United Nations warning that an outright invasion of the crowded southern city risked an “epic” disaster.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said two doctors were killed Sunday in the central town of Deir al-Balah, while AFP correspondents reported intense clashes and heavy gunfire from Israeli helicopters near Gaza City.
Witnesses said Israel had carried out strikes in Rafah near the crossing with Egypt on Saturday, and AFP images showed smoke rising over the city.
Israeli troops defied international opposition this week and entered eastern areas of the city, effectively shutting a key aid crossing and suspending traffic through another.
Israel expanded an evacuation order for eastern Rafah, after saying 300,000 people had fled the city since the army urged people to leave earlier in the week.
Residents piled water tanks, mattresses and other belongings onto vehicles and prepared to flee again.
“We don’t know where to go,” said Farid Abu Eida, who was preparing to leave Rafah, having already been displaced there from Gaza City.
“There is no place left in Gaza that is safe or not overcrowded… There’s nowhere we can go.”
Residents were told to go to the “humanitarian zone” of Al-Mawasi, on the coast northwest of Rafah.
Hamas accused Israel of “expanding the incursion into Rafah to include new areas in the center and the west of the city.”
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said “we have eliminated dozens of terrorists in eastern Rafah” and the army said troops were fighting “armed terrorists” at the crossing and had found “numerous underground tunnel shafts.”
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that Gaza risked an “epic humanitarian disaster” if Israel launched a full-scale ground operation in Rafah.
While mediation efforts toward a truce and hostage release appeared to stall, Hamas’ armed wing said a hostage who appeared in a video it released on Saturday had died from wounds suffered in an Israeli strike.
The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades said Nadav Popplewell, a British-Israeli man, had been wounded in a strike a month ago and died “because he did not receive intensive medical care because the enemy has destroyed the Gaza Strip’s hospitals.”
The Israeli military did not offer any comment on the video and AFP was unable to independently verify its authenticity.
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Saturday a cease-fire would be achieved “tomorrow” if Hamas released the hostages.