‘Limited response’ from Palestinians in Rafah to Israeli evacuation orders: Gaza media office

By Anadolu staff

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Gaza’s government media office said Monday there is a “limited response” from Palestinians to Israeli orders to evacuate the eastern neighborhoods of Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip.

“All vital institutions in eastern Rafah are still operating as usual, including the Rafah land crossing and Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital,” Salama Marouf, head of the media office, said in a statement.

The Israeli army issued immediate evacuation orders for Palestinians in the eastern part of Rafah and called on them to move to the town of al-Mawasi in southern Gaza.

Around 100,000 Palestinian civilians are estimated to be living in the areas to be evacuated, according to Israeli Army Radio.

The Israeli orders “are a continuation of Israel’s crimes and genocide against our people, and threaten the lives of 1.5 million Palestinians in the city,” Marouf said.

Rafah is home to more than 1.5 million displaced Palestinians who have taken refuge from the war launched by Israel following Hamas' Oct. 7 attack that killed nearly 1,200 people.

Since then, the Israeli onslaught has killed more than 34,700 Palestinians, mostly women and children, besides causing a humanitarian catastrophe.

Nearly seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and ordered Tel Aviv to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians there.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar