Israel orders Rafah evacuation
The Israeli military issued sweeping evacuation orders covering most of the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip on Monday morning.
Earlier this month, Israel ended a ceasefire and renewed its air and ground war against the Hamas militant group.
As Associated Press reports, Israel launched a major operation in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, last May, leaving large parts of it in ruins.
Israeli forces seized a strategic buffer zone along the border and did not withdraw from it as called for in the ceasefire agreement, saying it needed to maintain a presence there to prevent weapons smuggling.
In other developments:
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu picked former navy commander Eli Sharvit to head the domestic security agency, his office said Monday, despite the supreme court freezing the dismissal of the current Shin Bet chief, Ronen Bar.
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Suspected US airstrikes struck around Yemen’s rebel-held capital, Sanaa, overnight, and the Iranian-backed Houthis say at least one person was killed. The full extent of the damage and possible casualties wasn’t immediately clear. The attacks followed a night of airstrikes early Friday that appeared particularly intense compared to other days in the recent campaign.
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Iran has responded to a letter sent by US President Donald Trump wrote to its supreme leader in an attempt to jump-start talks over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear programme, rejecting the option of direct talks. The decision leaves open the possibility of indirect talks with Washington, but such talks have made no progress since Trump in his first term unilaterally withdrew the US from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.
Key events
Bodies of Red Crescent medics recovered
The bodies of eight Palestine Red Crescent (PRCS) medics who came under fire in Gaza just over a week ago have been recovered, though a ninth worker is still unaccounted for, the Red Cross said.
In a statement late on Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was “appalled” at the deaths.
Their bodies were identified today and have been recovered for dignified burial. These staff and volunteers were risking their own lives to provide support to others,” the ICRC said.
The PRCS said it also recovered the bodies of six civil defence members and one UN employee from the same area. It said Israeli forces had targeted the workers. Red Cross statements did not apportion blame for the attacks. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said one worker from the nine-strong PRCS group is still unaccounted for. The group went missing on 23 March. The incident was the single most deadly attack on Red Cross Red Crescent workers anywhere since 2017, the IFRC said.
IFRC Secretary General Jagan Chapagain said:
I am heartbroken. These dedicated ambulance workers were responding to wounded people. They were humanitarians.
They wore emblems that should have protected them; their ambulances were clearly marked.”
Even before this morning’s evacuation order in Rafah, the normally festive Eid al-Fitr holiday was a subdued affair in Gaza with no end in sight to the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel in which at least an estimated 50,000 Palestinians have died.
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Iran responds to Trump’s bombing threats
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Monday the US would receive a strong blow if it acts on Donald Trump’s bombing threats unless Tehran reaches a new nuclear deal with Washington.
The US president reiterated his threat on Sunday that Iran would be bombed if it does not accept his offer for talks outlined in a letter sent to Iran’s leadership in early March, giving Tehran a two-month window to make a decision.
“The enmity from the US and Israel has always been there. They threaten to attack us, which we don’t think is very probable, but if they commit any mischief they will surely receive a strong reciprocal blow,” Khamenei said, as reported by Reuters. “And if they are thinking of causing sedition inside the country as in past years, the Iranian people themselves will deal with them,” he added. Iranian authorities blame the west for recent unrest.
Last week, Iran responded to the US letter, with President Masoud Pezeshkian explaining on Sunday that Tehran would not enter direct negotiations with Washington but was willing to continue talks indirectly.
“An open threat of ‘bombing’ by a head of state against Iran is a shocking affront to the very essence of international peace and security,” foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei tweeted on Monday. “Violence breeds violence, peace begets peace. The US can choose the course and concede to consequences.”
The Israeli military orders to evacuate much of Rafah indicate it could soon launch another major ground operation in the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip, reports Associated Press.
Israel ended its ceasefire with the Hamas militant group and renewed its air and ground war earlier this month. At the beginning of March it cut off all supplies of food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid to the territory’s roughly two million Palestinians to pressure Hamas to accept changes to the truce agreement.
The evacuation orders appeared to cover nearly all of the city and nearby areas. The military ordered Palestinians to head to Muwasi, a sprawl of squalid tent camps along the coast. The orders came during Eid al-Fitr, a normally festive Muslim holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
Israel has vowed to intensify its military operations until Hamas releases the remaining 59 hostages it holds — 24 of whom are believed to be alive.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Sunday that Israel would take charge of security in Gaza after the war and implement US President Donald Trump’s proposal to resettle Gaza’s population in other countries, describing it as “voluntary emigration”.
That plan has been universally rejected by Palestinians, who view it as forcible expulsion from their homeland, and human rights experts say it would likely violate international law with some describing it as “ethnic cleansing”.
Israel orders Rafah evacuation
The Israeli military issued sweeping evacuation orders covering most of the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip on Monday morning.
Earlier this month, Israel ended a ceasefire and renewed its air and ground war against the Hamas militant group.
As Associated Press reports, Israel launched a major operation in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, last May, leaving large parts of it in ruins.
Israeli forces seized a strategic buffer zone along the border and did not withdraw from it as called for in the ceasefire agreement, saying it needed to maintain a presence there to prevent weapons smuggling.
In other developments:
-
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu picked former navy commander Eli Sharvit to head the domestic security agency, his office said Monday, despite the supreme court freezing the dismissal of the current Shin Bet chief, Ronen Bar.
-
Suspected US airstrikes struck around Yemen’s rebel-held capital, Sanaa, overnight, and the Iranian-backed Houthis say at least one person was killed. The full extent of the damage and possible casualties wasn’t immediately clear. The attacks followed a night of airstrikes early Friday that appeared particularly intense compared to other days in the recent campaign.
-
Iran has responded to a letter sent by US President Donald Trump wrote to its supreme leader in an attempt to jump-start talks over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear programme, rejecting the option of direct talks. The decision leaves open the possibility of indirect talks with Washington, but such talks have made no progress since Trump in his first term unilaterally withdrew the US from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.
