Israel fought fresh battles with Hamas in northern Gaza on Sunday after ordering tens of thousands more people to flee Rafah as it expanded its assault on the densely populated southern city despite international condemnation.
The Israel Defense Forces said on social media on Saturday that Palestinians should leave three districts close to the centre of Rafah and two refugee camps in the city. It instructed them to move to what Israel described as a “humanitarian area” on the coast.
“Our operations against Hamas in Rafah remain limited in scope and focus on tactical advances, tactical adjustments, and military advantages — and have avoided densely populated areas,” Daniel Hagari, the chief IDF spokesperson, said on Saturday night.
The UN estimates that about 300,000 people have fled Rafah since Israel sent ground troops to the eastern edge of the city on May 6 and seized the border crossing with Egypt. The city previously housed more than 1mn displaced Palestinians. “There is nowhere safe to go,” UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza, said on X.
The IDF also said it was continuing operations against “Hamas terror targets” in the northern city of Jabalia and the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, with fierce fighting reported on Sunday on Israeli and Palestinian social media accounts. Five Israeli soldiers were killed over the weekend in the offensive, according to the IDF.
In local media, Israeli military analysts criticised the need for the fresh offensives into the two neighbourhoods after Hamas forces moved back into the areas. Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has refused to put forward a realistic plan for an alternative postwar governing regime in Gaza that would replace Hamas rule.
The IDF offensive on Rafah has complicated diplomatic efforts to broker a deal to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and halt the war, while straining Israel’s relations with the Biden administration.
US President Joe Biden has told Israel that Washington will not supply certain offensive weapons if it proceeds with a full-scale assault on Rafah.
The US has already paused the delivery of some arms to Israel, including 3,500 bombs, over concerns about how they could be used in the city. That marks the first time the US has placed any conditions on arms deliveries to Israel since the war in Gaza erupted after Hamas’s October 7 attack.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Sunday that the US could not support a major military operation in Rafah “in the absence of a credible plan to protect civilians”.
“We haven’t seen that plan,” he told CBS News.
UK foreign secretary Lord David Cameron also warned Israel on Sunday over the impact of the Rafah operation on civilians, but rejected calls for an arms embargo on the Jewish state.
“I still don’t think it would be a wise path,” Cameron said about halting weapons sales, in an interview with Sky News. “It would strengthen Hamas, it would weaken Israel, and it would make a hostage deal less likely.”
Western states and UN aid agencies have repeatedly warned that an attack on Rafah, teeming with tent cities and those displaced from fighting in other parts of the enclave, would have disastrous humanitarian consequences. The war between Israel and Hamas has devastated Gaza, forced an estimated 80 per cent of the strip’s 2.3mn population from their homes and raised the prospect of famine and disease.
Talks mediated by the US, Qatar and Egypt to broker a hostage and ceasefire deal broke down earlier this week. Mediators failed to narrow the gaps between the warring parties over the terms of an agreement and what would happen after Israel attacked Rafah.
On Sunday, Egypt said it would formally join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
The Egyptian foreign ministry said the decision “comes in the context of intensifying Israeli attacks against Palestinian civilians in Gaza”. It cited “systematic practices by Israel” to destroy infrastructure in the strip, displace Palestinians and “force them out of their land”.
The move by Egypt more than four months after South Africa filed the case reflected Cairo’s anger at Israel’s military operation in Rafah, said Michael Wahid Hanna, analyst at the International Crisis Group.
Israel’s seizure of the Rafah crossing “deprives Cairo of influence”, Hanna said, adding that Egypt viewed the move as “a violation of their agreements”.
Israel insists it has no choice but to continue with its campaign against Hamas, saying the militant group’s remaining four intact battalions are in the southern city.
Netanyahu, who faces calls from far-right members of his governing coalition to press on, has publicly shrugged off US pressure to consider an end to the fighting even as Israel becomes more isolated internationally.
The prime minister said last week that Israel would “stand alone”, adding that “if we have to, we will fight with our fingernails”.
Netanyahu has vowed to eradicate Hamas and pursue “total victory” after the militant group launched its October attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and seizing 250 hostages, according to Israeli officials. About 130 Israelis and foreign nationals remain in captivity, but several dozen of those are already confirmed by Israeli intelligence to be dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive on Gaza has killed almost 35,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials, including dozens at the weekend.
Netanyahu has insisted that Israel needs to maintain military pressure on Hamas alongside diplomatic efforts to secure a hostage deal.
But John Kirby, US national security spokesman, said on Thursday Washington believed “that any kind of major Rafah ground operation would actually strengthen” the hand of Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader.
“It just gives him more ammunition for his twisted narrative,” he said.
Additional reporting by Aime Williams in Washington
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