The Israeli military on Monday called on civilians in eastern Rafah to evacuate as it prepares for an expected ground offensive in the southern Gaza city.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it would communicate its message to people in Rafah through “flyers, SMS messages, phone calls and media broadcasts in Arabic.” Nearly 1.4 million people have sought shelter from the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Rafah.
It comes after cease-fire talks between the two sides overseen by Egyptian mediators ended without a breakthrough over the weekend. Israel has previously asserted that a ground operation into Rafah is necessary to eliminate Hamas, a stated goal of the war it declared on the Islamist militant group following the Oct. 7 terror attack that left about 1,200 people dead within Israel. The fighting that followed has seen more than 34,000 Palestinians killed, according to Gaza’s local health official, and plunged the territory into an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.
The United Nations and countries around the world, including Israel’s Western allies, warned an assault on Rafah would exacerbate the already dire situation inside Gaza. World leaders have been calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to look for alternatives.