Israeli forces have completed the encirclement of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, the military says, part of an announced plan to seize more areas of the enclave accompanied by large-scale evacuations.
The military has issued repeated evacuation warnings in areas where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians reside across Rafah since it resumed operations in the Gaza Strip on March 18, forcing them into a diminishing space limited by the sea.
Israel said on April 2 that troops had begun seizing an area it called the Morag Axis, a reference to a former Israeli settlement once located between the cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip’s south.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have since fled Rafah, a 60 square km area that borders Egypt to the south.
“Over the past 24 hours, the 36th Division’s troops completed the establishment of the Morag route, separating Rafah and Khan Younis,” the military said on Saturday.
The Israeli military told residents in large parts of Khan Younis to leave immediately ahead of planned strikes on Saturday after rocket fire from nearby areas.
In a message posted in Arabic on X, a military spokesman described the warning as the “final notice” and instructed civilians to move to shelters in the western part of the city for their own safety.
The army said it would respond with “extreme force” to any area from which rockets are launched.
According to the Israeli military, three rockets were fired from the enclave’s south into Israeli territory on Saturday morning.
All were intercepted by Israel’s missile defence system, it said.
The Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip was launched after Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1200 people and taking 251 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 50,000 Palestinians have since been killed in the offensive, according to health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave.
Most of the population has been displaced and much of the Gaza Strip is in ruins.
Israel restarted the offensive in March after effectively abandoning a ceasefire in place since January.
The campaign will continue, it says, until the remaining 59 hostages are freed and Hamas is stamped out of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas says it will free hostages only as part of a deal that will end the war and has rejected demands to lay down its arms.
A Hamas delegation was expected in Cairo over the weekend to discuss new truce proposals, according to a source in the group.
with DPA
