Israel Orders Palestinians In Rafah To Evacuate Gaza's Southernmost City | rssama.com

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel’s subject connected Monday issued sweeping removal orders covering Rafah and adjacent areas, indicating it could soon motorboat different awesome crushed cognition successful the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city.

Israel ended its ceasefire pinch nan Hamas militant group and renewed its aerial and crushed warfare earlier this month. At nan opening of March it cut disconnected each supplies of food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian assistance to nan territory’s astir 2 cardinal Palestinians to unit Hamas to judge projected changes to nan truce agreement.

Israel’s subject ordered Palestinians to caput to Muwasi, a sprawl of squalid shelter camps on nan coast. The orders came during Eid al-Fitr, a usually festive Muslim holiday marking nan extremity of nan fasting period of Ramadan.

Last May, Israel launched a awesome cognition successful Rafah, connected nan separator pinch Egypt, leaving ample parts successful ruins. The subject seized a strategical corridor on nan separator arsenic good arsenic nan Rafah crossing pinch Egypt, Gaza’s only gateway to nan extracurricular world that was not controlled by Israel.

Israel was expected to retreat from nan corridor nether nan ceasefire it signed pinch Hamas successful January nether U.S. pressure, but it later refused to do it, citing nan request to forestall weapons smuggling.

Medics killed by Israeli occurrence are buried

Members of nan Palestine Red Crescent and different emergency services believe complete nan bodies of chap rescuers during a ceremonial convoy astatine Nasser Hospital successful Khan Younis, connected March 31, 2025. Medics said they recovered nan corpses of 8 Red Crescent members, six Gaza Civil Defense members and 1 United Nations employee, each of whom were killed by Israeli forces a week earlier.

Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images

Dozens gathered astatine a ceremonial for immoderate of nan 15 emergency responders killed by Israeli occurrence during a crushed cognition successful Rafah past week. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies called it nan deadliest onslaught connected its medics successful respective years.

Raed al-Nems, a spokesperson for nan Palestinian Red Crescent, said nan paramedics were “killed successful acold blood” contempt wearing uniforms and operating successful intelligibly branded ambulances. At ceremonial prayers, their shrouds were draped pinch Red Crescent banners.

Israel’s subject has said its forces opened occurrence connected respective vehicles that raised suspicions by advancing without headlights aliases emergency signals. The subject said a Hamas operative and 8 different militants were among those killed.

The United Nations humanitarian agency said nan dormant included 8 Red Crescent workers, six members of Gaza’s Civil Defense, which operates nether nan Hamas-run government, and a U.N. worker.

Rescuers were only allowed to entree nan area astir a week later to retrieve nan bodies. Footage of Sunday’s betterment cognition released by nan U.N. showed Civil Defense workers digging into a mound of soil and pulling retired a assemblage wearing nan aforesaid orangish vest arsenic theirs.

Netanyahu vows to instrumentality Trump’s Gaza plan

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a reside during nan International Conference connected Combating Antisemitism successful Jerusalem, connected Thursday, March 27, 2025.

Leo Correa via Associated Press

Israel has vowed to intensify its subject operations until Hamas releases nan remaining 59 hostages it holds — 24 of them believed to beryllium alive. Israel has besides demanded that Hamas disarm and time off nan territory, conditions that were not included successful nan ceasefire statement and which Hamas has rejected.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel would return complaint of information successful Gaza aft nan warfare and instrumentality U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to resettle Gaza’s organization successful different countries, describing it arsenic “voluntary emigration.”

That scheme has been universally rejected by Palestinians, who position it arsenic forcible expulsion from their homeland. Human authorities experts opportunity it would apt break world law.

Hamas has insisted connected implementing nan signed agreement, which called for nan remainder of nan hostages to beryllium released successful speech for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli pullout. Negotiations complete those parts of nan statement were expected to statesman successful February but only preliminary talks person been held.

The warfare began erstwhile Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel connected Oct. 7, 2023, rampaging done service bases and farming communities and sidesplitting immoderate 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The militants took different 251 group hostage, astir of whom person been released successful ceasefires aliases different deals.

Israel’s retaliatory violative has killed much than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not opportunity really galore were civilians aliases combatants. At its height, nan warfare had displaced immoderate 90% of Gaza’s population, pinch galore fleeing aggregate times.

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Khaled reported from Cairo.