Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has ordered the Israeli military to come up with a plan for civilians sheltering in the southern city of Rafah to evacuate, his office said on Friday, as Israeli leaders have increasingly indicated they intend to ultimately send ground troops into the crowded city.
“Any forceful action in Rafah would require the evacuation of the civilian population from combat zones,” the prime minister’s office said, without saying what area those zones would cover or when such an operation would begin.
Roughly 1.4 million Palestinians are now sheltering in Rafah, according to the United Nations. Lying on the border with Egypt, the city is one of the last areas of the Gaza Strip in which Israeli ground troops have yet to deploy in force.
Many of the people who have squeezed into the city have been displaced multiple times since the beginning of the war, and finding food, water and medicine has become a daily struggle.But it is not clear where those people could go and Israeli officials have yet to provide any clear answers.
Many displaced Gazans sheltering in Rafah have fled from towns and cities farther north in the enclave, devastated by war, where fighting continues and basic supplies are critically short, and Israel has said they cannot yet return.
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