IDF calls on Gazans to leave additional Rafah neighborhoods as it presses operation
- May 11, 2024
The Israeli military on Saturday morning began calling on Palestinians in additional neighborhoods of Rafah to evacuate the area, as it pressed on with an operation against the Hamas terror group in the city in the southern Gaza Strip.
Last week, the Israel Defense Forces issued an evacuation warning for the eastern outskirts of Rafah, before it pushed into the area.
The latest warning covered the Rafah and Shaboura camps and the neighborhoods of Geneina and Khirbat al-Adas, slightly deeper into the city.
In the initial evacuation zone and other areas of Rafah, around 300,000 Palestinians have evacuated to a designated “humanitarian zone,” according to IDF assessments.
Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, published on Saturday morning a list of the new zones that needed to be evacuated.
The IDF also dropped flyers, sent text messages and made phone calls with the evacuation instructions.
The civilians were called on to move to the expanded humanitarian zone in the al-Mawasi and Khan Younis areas in southern Gaza.
The IDF’s operation in Rafah has so far been limited to the eastern part of the city and the border crossing with Egypt.
The IDF says troops have located several tunnel shafts and killed dozens of gunmen so far.
A separate evacuation order was given for the Jabaliya area, where the IDF estimated between 100,000 and 150,000 Palestinians were.
Civilians were being told to move to shelters west of Gaza City.
