The occupation begins displacing the residents of Rafah and kills 16 Palestinians from two families in a night bombing

Today, Monday, Israeli occupation forces began displacing Palestinian civilians from the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, before a possible ground attack on the city, an Israeli radio station reported.

The Israeli occupation army warned Rafah residents to leave the eastern neighborhoods of the area to Al-Mawasi, southwest of the Gaza Strip, “temporarily.”

He said in a statement: “Based on the approval of the political level, the Israeli army calls on the civilian population to temporarily evacuate from the eastern neighborhoods of the Rafah area to the Al-Mawasi area,” as he put it. He added, "This process will move forward gradually based on the continuous assessment of the situation that will take place throughout."

The occupation army published maps showing the displacement routes on its social media accounts.

He claimed to have expanded the Al-Mawasi area, “which includes field hospitals, tents, and large quantities of food, water, medicine, and other supplies,” according to the statement.

The occupation army also claimed that it allows, in cooperation with some international organizations and other countries, “the expansion of the humanitarian aid being brought into the Gaza Strip.”

He pointed out that "leaflets will be distributed, SMS messages and phone calls will be sent, as well as information will be broadcast through the Arab media," according to the statement.

He added that the army "will continue to work to achieve the goals of the war, including dismantling Hamas and returning all the kidnapped people."

The occupation army said that the evacuation in the eastern areas of Rafah is part of a process that it described as “limited in scope,” adding that the move to “humanitarian areas will be temporary,” without specifying a time period.

According to estimates, there are about 100,000 civilians in the area that will be evacuated in Rafah, according to the occupation army radio.

On Sunday/Monday night, 16 Palestinians from two families, including two children, were martyred in Israeli raids on the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, according to what rescue teams and paramedics announced.

Civil Defense teams reported that “the death toll in Rafah reached 16 martyrs: 7 martyrs when the Al-Attar family was targeted and 9 martyrs when the Qishta family was targeted.”

Medical sources confirmed the outcome, noting that the two attacks occurred on Sunday evening, in “Yabna refugee camp, and in the Al-Salam neighborhood, east of Rafah.”

This city, the only one in the Strip that Israeli soldiers have not yet entered, has become the last refuge for hundreds of thousands of civilians who have fled bombing and fighting in other areas. According to the World Health Organization, 1.2 million Palestinians remain crowded in the city.

Since October 7, Israel has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties, most of them children and women, not to mention the massive destruction of buildings and infrastructure.