Instructed by Arabic text messages, phone calls and flyers to move to what the Israeli army called an “extended humanitarian zone” 12 miles (20 km) away, some Palestinian families trudged outside under the cold spring rain, witnesses said.
The Israeli military said it had begun encouraging residents of Rafah to evacuate in an operation of “limited scope.” It did not give specific reasons or say whether offensive action might follow.
Seven months after the war against Hamas, Israel is threatening to launch raids on Rafah, where it says thousands of Hamas fighters and possibly dozens of hostages are staying. Victory is impossible without taking Rafah, it says.
The prospect of a high-casualty operation is worrying Western powers and neighboring Egypt, which is trying to mediate a new round of ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas that could see the Palestinian Islamist group free some hostages.
The Rafah plan has opened an unusually public rift between Israel and Washington. In a call with his American counterpart, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant linked Monday's operation to the deadlock in indirect diplomacy, which he blamed on Hamas.
“During their discussion, Gallant discussed the efforts made to secure the release of hostages and indicated that Hamas rejects the framework at this stage,” Israel's Defense Ministry said in a statement.
“Gallant stressed that military action is necessary, including in the Rafah area, in the absence of an alternative,” it added.
On Monday, the Israeli military called on Palestinians in the eastern parts of Rafah to move to a nearby “humanitarian area,” saying this would “encourage the gradual relocation of civilians in the specified areas.”
An Israeli broadcaster, Army Radio, said the evacuations were focused on some peripheral districts of Rafah, from where evacuees would be directed to tent cities in nearby Khan Younis and Al Muwassi.
Many residents of Rafah said they had received calls to evacuate their homes in the target area, in line with the military's announcement.
An overnight airstrike on Rafah hit 10 houses, killing 20 people and wounding several, medical officials said.
Three Israeli soldiers were killed on Sunday in a Hamas rocket attack near Rafah, at the Kerem Shalom border crossing into Gaza, while Palestinian health officials said at least 19 people were killed by Israeli fire.
Sunday's crossing attack came as hopes for a ceasefire in Cairo faded, with Hamas repeating its demand for an end to the war in exchange for the release of hostages and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outright ruling that out.
The war began after Hamas stunned Israel on October 7 with a cross-border attack that killed 1,200 people and took 252 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed, including 29 in the past 24 hours, and more than 77,000 have been injured in the Israeli attack.
On Sunday, a senior U.N. official accused Israel of continuing to deny U.N. humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip, where the U.N. food chief warned there is “complete famine” in the north of the enclave of 2.3 million people took place.
Although not a formal statement, Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Program, said in an interview with NBC News that aired Sunday, based on the “horror” on the ground: “There is a famine, an outright famine in the north, and it's moving its way south.”