Israeli Army Orders Evacuatio 05/06 05:35

   The Israeli army on Monday ordered tens of thousands of Palestinians in 
Gaza's southern city of Rafah to start evacuating from the area, signaling that 
a long-promised ground invasion there could be imminent.

   JERUSALEM (AP) -- The Israeli army on Monday ordered tens of thousands of 
Palestinians in Gaza's southern city of Rafah to start evacuating from the 
area, signaling that a long-promised ground invasion there could be imminent.

   The announcement complicates last-ditch efforts by international mediators, 
including the director of the CIA, to broker a cease-fire. The militant Hamas 
group and Qatar, a key mediator, have warned that invading Rafah -- along the 
border with Egypt -- could derail the talks, and the United States has 
repeatedly urged Israel against the invasion.

   However, Israel has described Rafah as the last significant Hamas stronghold 
after seven months of war, and its leaders have repeatedly said the invasion is 
necessary to defeat the Islamic militant group.

   Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an army spokesman, said 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 after 
Oct. 7 and the unprecedented attack on southern Israel by Hamas, Israel did not 
formally announce the launch of a ground invasion that continues to this day.

   Overnight, Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, told U.S. Secretary of Defense, 
Lloyd Austin that Israel had no choice but to act in Rafah. On Sunday, Hamas 
carried out a deadly rocket attack from the Rafah area that killed four Israeli 
soldiers.

   Shoshani said Israel published a map of the evacuation area, and that orders 
were being issued through air-dropped leaflets, text messages and radio 
broadcasts. He said Israel has expanded humanitarian aid into Muwasi, including 
field hospitals, tents, food and water.

   Israel's army said on the social platform X that it would act with "extreme 
force" against militants, and urged the population to evacuate immediately for 
their safety.

   Israel's plan to invade Rafah has raised global alarm because of the 
potential for harm to more than a million Palestinian civilians sheltering 
there.

   About 1.4 million Palestinians -- more than half of Gaza's population -- are 
jammed into the city 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 staying under a new assault. They live in 
densely packed tent camps, overflowing U.N. shelters or crowded apartments, and 
are dependent on international aid for food, with sanitation systems and 
medical facilities infrastructure crippled.

   The U.N. agency that has helped millions of Palestinians in Gaza and the 
West Bank for decades, known as UNRWA, warned Monday of devastating 
consequences of a Rafah offensive, including more civilian suffering and 
deaths. The agency said it would not leave but stay in Rafah as long as 
possible to continue providing lifesaving assistance.

   Egypt's Rafah crossing, a main transfer point for aid going into Gaza, lies 
in the evacuation zone. The crossing remained open on Monday after the Israeli 
order.

   But even as the U.S., Egypt and Qatar have pushed for a cease-fire 
agreement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated last week that 
the military would move on the city "with or without a deal" to achieve its 
goal of destroying the Hamas militant group.

   On Monday, Netanyahu accused Hamas of "torpedoing" the hostage deal and not 
budging from its "extreme demands" while vowing to stop the militants from 
retaking control of Gaza. In a fiery speech Sunday evening marking the 
country's annual Holocaust memorial day, he rejected international pressure to 
halt the war, saying that "if Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will 
stand alone."

   A Hamas official told The Associated Press that Israel is trying to pressure 
the group into making concessions on the cease-fire, but that it won't change 
its demands. Hamas wants a full end to the war, withdrawal of Israeli troops 
from Gaza and the eventual reconstruction of the strip in exchange for the 
Israeli hostages held by the militants.

   Shoshani would not say whether the upcoming Rafah operation is a response to 
Sunday's attack by Hamas that forced Israel's key border crossing for aid to 
close. He said it would not affect how much aid enters Gaza as other crossing 
points remain operational.

   He wouldn't comment, however, on U.S. warnings not to invade and wasn't 
clear on whether Monday's evacuation order was coordinated with Egypt.

   Egypt, a strategic partner of Israel, has said that an Israeli military 
seizure of the Gaza-Egypt border -- which is supposed to be demilitarized -- or 
any move to push Palestinians into Egypt would threaten its four-decade-old 
peace treaty with Israel.

   In Rafah, people received flyers Monday morning in Arabic detailing which 
neighborhood blocks needed to leave and where humanitarian zones had expanded 
to. The flyers said that aid services would spread from Deir al Balah in the 
north to the center of Khan Younis city in the middle of the Gaza Strip.

   "Anyone found near (militant) organizations endangers themselves and their 
family members. For your safety, the (army) urges you to evacuate immediately 
to the expanded humanitarian area", it read.

   Palestinians in Rafah said people gathered to discuss their options after 
receiving the flyers. Most said they did not want to move alone and preferred 
to travel in groups.

   "So many people here are displaced and now they have to move again, but no 
one will stay here it's not safe," Nidal Alzaanin told The Associated Press by 
phone.

   A father of five, Alzaanin works for an international aid group and was 
displaced to Rafah from Beit Hanoun in the north at the start of the war. He 
said people are concerned since Israeli troops shot at Palestinians as they 
moved during previous evacuation orders.

   Alzaanin said he has packed his documents and bags but will wait 24 hours to 
see what others do before relocating. He said he has a friend in Khan Younis 
whom he hopes can pitch a tent for his family.

   But some people say they're too tired and fed up of months of devastation to 
flee again.

   Sahar Abu Nahel was displaced to Rafah with 20 of her family, her husband is 
being held by Israel, her son-in-law in missing, she said.

   "Where am I going to go? I have no money or anything. I am seriously tired 
as are (my) children," she said wiping tears from her cheeks. "Maybe it's more 
honorable for us to die. We are being humiliated," she said.