Israel readies for Rafah offensive as talks with Hamas collapse; 1 lakh being evacuated

The Israeli military has started evacuating Palestinian families from Rafah in preparation for a planned assault on the southern Gaza city as talks to end the war with the Hamas appeared to have collapsed.

Tens of thousands of people were told to evacuate the southern Gaza city, signalling that a long-promised ground invasion could be imminent.

The Army Radio in Tel Aviv said the evacuations were focussed on a few peripheral districts of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have taken shelter after fleeing from other parts of Gaza, Reuters said.

Rafah assault

The United States has repeatedly warned Israel against attacking Rafah, saying this could lead to mass deaths. But Israel says the last of the Hamas fighters are holed up in Rafah and that they need to be crushed.

Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, an army spokesman, told news agency AP that some 100,000 people were being ordered to move to a nearby Israel-declared humanitarian zone called Muwasi. He said Israel was preparing a “limited scope operation” and would not say whether this was the beginning of a broader invasion of the city. But last October, Israel did not formally announce the launch of a ground invasion that continues to this day.

The move comes a day after Hamas militants carried out a deadly rocket attack from the area that killed three Israeli soldiers.

Rafah fears

Western powers and Egypt, which borders Rafah, fear that an Israeli offensive would cause very high casualties. Already, months of fighting in Gaza since October has killed more than 34,000 people, a majority of them civilians.

About 1.4 million Palestinians — more than half of Gaza's population — are jammed into Rafah town and its surroundings. Most of them fled their homes elsewhere in the territory to escape Israel's onslaught and now face another wrenching move, or the danger of facing the brunt of a new assault.

They live in densely packed tent camps, overflowing UN shelters or crowded apartments, and are dependent on international aid for food, with sanitation systems and medical facilities infrastructure crippled.

Aid gate closed

The fears over a Rafah assault came as the latest round of Gaza cease-fire talks ended in Cairo with the Hamas militant group reiterating its key demands that Israel again rejected.

After initial signs of progress, the outlook appeared to dim as Israel closed its main crossing point for delivering badly needed humanitarian aid for Gaza after Hamas militants attacked it. Rafah is also a key entry point for aid entering Gaza from Egypt.

Israel peeved

The Israeli defence minister alleged that Hamas wasn't serious about a deal and warned of “a powerful operation in the very near future in Rafah and other places across all of Gaza".

Israel didn't send a delegation to the talks mediated by Egypt and Qatar.

Al Jazeera shut

Egyptian state media said the Hamas delegation left Cairo for discussions in Qatar and will return to for further dialogue on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Israel has ordered the local offices of Qatar's Al Jazeera satellite news network to close in Tel Aviv, accusing it of broadcasting anti-Israel incitement.

Netanyahu defiant

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, under pressure from hard-liners in his government, continued to lower expectations for a truce deal, calling the key Hamas demands “extreme” — including the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and an end to the war.

That would amount to surrendering after the Hamas attack on October 7 that triggered the fighting, Netanyahu said.

Hamas attack

The Israeli military reported 10 projectiles were launched at its Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Israel killing three Israeli soldiers. It said its fighter jets later struck the source.

It was unclear how long the crossing would be closed.

Famine warning

The attack came shortly after the UN World Food Program (WFP) asserted that a “full-blown famine” had hit devastated northern Gaza due to restrictions on food and other aid entering the territory.

WFP chief Cindy McCain said the famine was “moving its way south” in Gaza and that Israel's efforts to allow in more aid were not enough.

Egyptian idea

The proposal Egyptian mediators had put to Hamas sets out a three-stage process that would bring an immediate, six-week ceasefire and a partial release of Israeli hostages taken after the October 7 attack.

The deal could also include some sort of an Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza.

The initial stage would last for 40 days. Hamas would start by releasing female civilian hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Israeli strike

Netanyahu claimed that Israel has shown willingness to make concessions but said it "will continue fighting until all of its objectives are achieved.”

An Israeli strike on Sunday on the al-Attar family house in an urban refugee camp near Rafah killed four children, including a baby, and two adults, according to the Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital.

(With agency inputs)