Israel orders people in more areas of Gaza's Rafah to evacuate

Israel called on Saturday for Palestinians in more areas of Gaza's southern city of Rafah to evacuate and head to what it calls an expanded humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi, in a further indication that the military is pressing ahead with its plans for a ground attack on Rafah.

In a post on social media site X, a military spokesperson also called on residents and displaced people in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, and 11 other neighbourhoods in the enclave to leave immediately to the west of Gaza City.

According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, 24 Palestinians were killed overnight after Israeli jets targeted several areas in central Gaza.

Despite heavy US pressure and alarm expressed by residents and humanitarian groups, Israel has said it will proceed with an incursion into Rafah, where more than one million displaced people have sought refuge during the seven-month-old war.

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Israel's military said that so far, about 300,000 Gazans have been forced to move towards Al-Mawasi.

Israel says it cannot win the war without rooting out members of Hamas which it alleges are deployed in Rafah.

Israeli tanks captured the main road dividing Rafah's eastern and western sections on Friday, effectively encircling the eastern side in an assault that has caused Washington to hold up the delivery of some military aid to its ally.

The White House said on Friday it was watching the Israeli operations "with concern," although the US claims that the assault appears to be localized around the shuttered Rafah crossing.

Israel's brutal military operation in Gaza has killed close to 35,000 Palestinians, and injured over 70,000 with thousands more missing - believed to have been buried under the rubble of buildings. The bombardment has laid waste to the coastal enclave and caused a deep humanitarian crisis.