Thousands flee Gaza's Rafah after Israel issues new evacuation orders

Thousand of Palestinians fled Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah on Monday after the Israeli military issued new sweeping evacuation orders, indicating it could soon launch another major ground operation.

At least 140,000 people were affected by the evacuation order, according to Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the UN agency helping Palestinian refugees.

“People are treated like pinballs with constant military orders playing with their fate and lives,” Lazzarini wrote on the social platform X.

“This is causing panic, anxiety & uncertainty on the first day of Eid, a time to be with family & loved ones,” he added. Eid al-Fitr is normally a festive Muslim holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

People were seen travelling north with their belongings loaded onto donkeys and stacked on car roofs. Some families also travelled by foot carrying luggage as children held adults’ hands.

“We are dying. There is no food, no drink, no electricity, no medicine,” said Hanadi Dahoud, who was displaced from the southern city of Khan Younis. “We want to live. We just want to live. We are tired.”

Israel's evacuation orders cover Rafah and nearby areas. Palestinians are being told to head to Muwasi, a sprawl of squalid tent camps along the coast.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military continued its ongoing ground operation in the north of Gaza, saying personnel were "continuing targeted operations to expand the security perimeter in northern and central Gaza."

It also said troops "dismantled a one-kilometre-long underground tunnel route belonging to Hamas" and the troops also "located a workshop used for producing rockets and launchers."

They said in a statement that "50 terrorists were eliminated" by the troops.

Israel ended its