Middle East crisis live: Hamas condemns Israeli order to evacuate Rafah as a ‘dangerous escalation’ | Israel-Gaza war

Egypt’s state-affiliated Al Qahera news TV on Monday quoted an unnamed “high-level” source as saying that Hamas’s attack on Gaza’s Kerem Shalom crossing had caused an impasse in ceasefire talks, Reuters reports.

The Egyptian negotiators are intensifying talks to contain the current escalation between Israel and Hamas, the source said according to the channel.

Haaretz reports that the IDF has released the name of the fourth Israeli soldier killed in Sunday’s Hamas rocket barrage which landed near the Kerem Shalom crossing.

It writes:

The army said that ten launches were detected in the barrage, which was aimed at two positions where the soldiers were stationed. According to the announcement, the forces were stationed there to guard vehicles and military equipment intended to be used in case the army decided to enter Rafah.

ActionAid in the UK has described the Israeli plan to evacuate Palestinians out of Rafah before launching a ground offensive as an “unlawful” act that will lead to “catastrophic consequences”.

In a statement it said:

Our aid workers are reporting some of the most severe conditions in recent memory with widespread disease, starvation and chaos. Let us be clear, there are no safe zones in Gaza.

The international community must act swiftly to prevent further atrocities and hold themselves as well as the Israeli government to account – if an invasion of Rafah is your ‘red line’ will you do everything possible to stop this imminent attack?

Islamic Relief has also issued a statement, saying it is “appalled” and that the development will “put many lives at even greater risk”.

Noting that “heavy bombing in Rafah overnight has reportedly killed many civilians, including several children”, it said:

As we have seen over the past seven months, forcing so many people to move is impossible without serious humanitarian cost and people will inevitably die as a result of the evacuation. The sick and wounded, elderly people, newborn infants and people with disabilities are particularly vulnerable and often cannot evacuate without support.

The area where people have been ordered to move – al Mawasi – has been designated a so-called ‘safe humanitarian zone’ but it is not safe. Civilians sheltering there say they continue to face attacks and severe shortages of food, water and other vital aid. Forcing more people there will make the humanitarian crisis even worse.

Some images are reaching us over the news wires that appear to show Palestinians beginning to move out of some areas of Rafah with whatever possessions they have to hand.

One Palestinian has spoken to Reuters via chat app, telling the news agency “It has been raining heavily and we don’t know where to go. I have been worried that this day may come, I have now to see where I can take my family.”

The Palestinian news agency Wafa has reported that 22 Palestinians, including eight children, have been killed by Israeli strikes on Rafah since yesterday evening. It reported its correspondents in the Gaza Strip told it:

They said that four civilains, including two children, were killed in an Israeli bombing that targeted a house owned by Abu Lebda family in Al-Geneina neighbourhood, east of the city of Rafah, while nine people, including four children, were killed as a result of an Israeli bombing that targeted a house owned by Qishta family in Al-Salam neighbourhood in the city of Rafah.

Four citizens, including an infant, were killed as a result of the occupation warplanes bombing a house on George Street, east of the city of Rafah. An airstrike also targeted Khirbet Al-Adas, northeast of the city.

It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.

Australia warns Israel it ‘should not go down this path’ over Rafah plans

Daniel Hurst

Speaking from Amman in Jordan, the head of advocacy, media & communications for the Middle East and North Africa at Norwegian Refugee Council has said that an Israeli assault on Rafah will lead to “mass atrocities”.

Interviewed by the Al Jazeera news network, Samah Hadid said:

We’ve been warning that a military offensive on Rafah would cause mass atrocities. It will cause mass civilian deaths. And we’ve been urging the international community and allies of the Israeli government to put a stop to this, right now. We need every ally of the Israeli government, including the US government, to increase its pressure, to stop the arm sales, and put pressure on Israel to put a stop to this offensive, which will lead to mass atrocities.

She told Al Jazeera that the conditions at al-Mawasi, where Israel says it is intending the civilian population to evacuate to, are “woefully inadequate”.

She said:

It does not have the basic infrastructure in place to service and support the current displaced population, let alone the additional group of people moving towards there.

Al Jazeera has been banned from operating in Israel by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government,

Hamas: Israeli order to evacuate Rafah is a ‘dangerous escalation that will have consequences’

The Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it fired “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at an Israeli base in the Golan Heights, the AFP news agency has said.

Lebanese official media also said three people had been wounded in an Israeli strike earlier on Monday in the country’s east, with the Israeli army saying it had struck a Hezbollah “military compound”.

Hezbollah fighters launched “dozens of Katyusha rockets” targeting “the headquarters of the Golan Division… at Nafah base”, the group said in a statement, saying it was “in response to the enemy’s attack targeting the Bekaa region”.

If a Rafah offensive takes place it would lead to “the collapse of the aid response” that is reliant on the Rafah hub to distribute aid throughout that area of Gaza, the Norwegian Refugee Council has warned.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military have been dropping leaflets in the Rafah area. Maram Humaid of Al Jazeera English has this:

If you’re just joining us now, here’s a summary of the latest developments in the Israel-Gaza war and the Middle East crisis ahead of an expected Israeli offensive on the Gazan city of Rafah, where more than 1.4 million people are sheltering

• Israel’s military has issued a call for residents and displaced people to evacuate eastern neighbourhoods of Rafah and head to an “expanded humanitarian zone” in southern Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that it was making the call to evacuate through “announcements, text messages, phone calls and media broadcasts in Arabic”.

• Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant has told his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin, that military action in Rafah was required due to Hamas’ refusals of mediated proposals for a Gaza truce under which the Palestinian Islamist group would free some hostages. Gallant had claimed Hamas wasn’t serious about a deal and warned of “a powerful operation in the very near future in Rafah.”

• Israel wants the evacuees to head to al-Mawasi, a barren stretch of coastline that it has designated as a “humanitarian zone” since early on in the war. The area has however been repeatedly bombed by Israel.

• Israel closed the Kerem Shalom crossing, one of the main crossings used to deliver humanitarian aid into Gaza, after a rocket attack claimed by Hamas killed three soldiers. The armed wing of Hamas said it fired rockets at an Israeli army base next to the crossing. The closing of Kerem Shalom came shortly after the head of the UN World Food Programme asserted there was “full-blown famine” in devastated northern Gaza.

• Israeli authorities shut down the local offices of Al Jazeera on Sunday, hours after a government vote to use new laws to close the satellite news network’s operations in the country. Critics called the move a “dark day for the media” and raised new concerns about the attitude to free speech of Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government.

• Senior Israeli officials ramped up pressure on Hamas on Sunday, saying Israel would refuse any permanent end to hostilities and threatening a new onslaught “in the very near future” if the militant organisation did not accept recently proposed terms for a ceasefire. In a televised address, Benjamin Netanyahu once more rejected Hamas’s demands for a definitive end to the war in Gaza, saying that any permanent ceasefire would allow the group to remain in power and pose a continuing threat to Israel.

• Hamas reiterated its demand for an end to the war in exchange for the freeing of hostages. In their second day of truce talks in Cairo with Egyptian and Qatari mediators, Hamas negotiators maintained their stance that any truce agreement must end the war, Palestinian officials said.

• Israel used a US weapon in a March airstrike which killed seven healthcare workers in southern Lebanon, according to a Guardian analysis of shrapnel found at the site of the attack, which was described by Human Rights Watch as a violation of international law. Seven volunteer paramedics, aged between 18 and 25, were killed in the 27 March attack on an ambulance center belonging to the Lebanese Succor Association in the town of al-Habariyeh in south Lebanon on 27 March.

This is Ben Quinn taking on the blog now

Before the news of the evacuation orders broke, CIA chief William Burns, a main mediator in the ceasefire talks, was reportedly due to meet with Netanyahu on Monday. It is not clear if that meeting is still scheduled to take place.

An Israeli offensive on Rafah would be “devastating” for the 1.4 million people living there, the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency Unrwa has warned, adding that it will not be evacuating.

The warning came hours after Unrwa boss Philippe Lazzarini said he had been denied entry to Gaza for the second time since the war began.

“The Israeli authorities continue to deny humanitarian access to the United Nations,” he said on Sunday.

Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant has told his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin, that military action in Rafah was required due to Hamas’ refusals of mediated proposals for a Gaza truce under which the Palestinian Islamist group would free some hostages.

It was not clear if a military operation had begun in Rafah.

A statement from the US defence department earlier said only that Austin “reaffirmed his commitment to the unconditional return of all hostages and stressed the need for any potential Israeli military operation in Rafah to include a credible plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians and maintain the flow of humanitarian aid.”