'Evacuate Rafa': Israel's warning to Palestinians on Eid, attacks again

The Israeli military has authorized the complete evacuation of the majority of Rafah, indicating the first large-scale ground incursion in the Gaza Strip's southern city. This action follows the end of Israel's ceasefire with Hamas and its resumption of its aerial and ground war earlier this month. In an attempt to intimidate Hamas into consenting to changes to the truce treaty, Israel denied all food deliveries, fuel, medicine, and humanitarian supplies to Gaza's some two million Palestinians in early March. The Eid al-Fitr evacuation notices require Palestinians to move to Muwasi, a strip of squalid tent encampments along the shoreline.

A history of sonflict

Israel had already conducted a large-scale operation in Rafah last May, leveling much of the city. The military seized a strategic border strip and the Rafah crossing into Egypt, Gaza's only point of entry and exit not in Israeli hands.

Demands and Conditions

Israel has vowed to intensify its military offensive until Hamas releases the remaining 59 hostages and disarms and leaves the territory. But Hamas has insisted on the implementation of the signed agreement, calling for the release of the remaining hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal.

A proposal rejected by Palestinians

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel would take over security in Gaza after the war and implement US President Donald Trump's proposal to resettle Gaza's population in other countries, terming it "voluntary emigration." But the plan has been dismissed by Palestinians as forced expulsion from their homeland.