Fears grow of expansion of Israeli military operation in Rafah

The Israeli army has called on people in Rafah to leave further areas of the city, increasing concerns about an expansion of its military operation in the southernmost city of the Gaza Strip.

Families are packing their belongings all over the city, a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) employee wrote on X: "The streets are much emptier."

At the beginning of the week, Israel launched a deployment of ground troops in the eastern outskirts of Rafah in order to expand the fight against the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement.