Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his country's war cabinet on Thursday that the Israel Defense Forces operation in Rafah must be complete by the start of Ramadan on March 10, an Israeli official told CNN on Saturday.
Netanyahu’s office said Friday that he had directed the military to plan for the “evacuation of the population” from Rafah, where there are believed to be more than 1.3 million people — many of them already displaced by Israel's offensive elsewhere in the enclave.
Here's what you need to about this and other developments in the Israel-Hamas war:
- Where will the civilians go? Rafah is the last major population center in Gaza not occupied by the Israel Defense Forces, and it has rapidly become home to a huge population of displaced Palestinians. Satellite images showed this week how a tent city has swelled in size in just a few weeks. CNN has also previously reported on Palestinian civilians who followed evacuation orders being killed by Israeli strikes, underscoring the reality that evacuation zones and warning alerts from the Israeli military haven’t guaranteed safety for civilians in the densely populated Gaza Strip, where Palestinians have no safe place to escape Israeli bombs.
- International alarm grows: Several non-governmental organizations have warned about the consequences of Israeli operations in Rafah. The Norwegian Refugee Council said earlier this week that the city, which borders Egypt, could soon turn "into a zone of bloodshed and destruction that people won’t be able to escape." Mustafa Barghouti, head of the Palestinian National Initiative said any attack on Rafah would lead to "massacres," and also a "wide ethnic cleansing of the population of Gaza, which is part of genocide."
- 5-year-old Palestinian girl found dead: Hind Rajab, who was trapped in a car with her dead relatives after it came under Israeli fire in Gaza last month, has been found dead. Two men dispatched to rescue her have also been confirmed dead. Hind made a frantic call for help after her family was killed. Her mother told CNN the little girl had dreamed of being a doctor.
- Hospital reportedly under fire: At least one person was killed and others were injured by Israeli gunfire at Nasser medical complex in southern Khan Younis early Saturday, the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza said in a statement. The ministry said Israel was firing on the hospital, where thousands are sheltering. CNN can't independently confirm the allegations. Medical officials at various hospitals in the enclave have for weeks reported siege-like conditions, with dwindling supplies and Israeli forces on all sides.
And here are some of the latest developments from elsewhere in the Mideast:
- More US strikes on Houthi weapons: The US launched more strikes on a series of missiles belonging to the Iran-backed Houthi rebel group in Yemen on Saturday, according to US Central Command, which said the weapons were "prepared to launch at ships in the Red Sea" and "presented an imminent threat to U.S. Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region." The Houthis' attacks on global shipping and the growing US response are among the key flashpoints in the wider conflicts playing out during the Israel-Hamas war.
- Lebanon drone strike: A drone strike targeted a car about 40 miles from the southernmost Lebanese-Israeli border, the Lebanese state-run National News Agency said Saturday. The report called it an "enemy drone," a likely reference to it being Israeli. The strike resulted in injuries, according to NNA, with the outlet not reporting any deaths at the time. Reuters cited four security sources saying a Palestinian figure linked to Hamas survived the attack. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.
- Iranian and Hezbollah officials meet: The reported drone strike came as Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah for a discussion on "the latest political and security developments in the region, especially in the Gaza Strip, southern Lebanon, and the rest of the fronts of the resistance axis," according to NNA. Hezbollah has been involved in tit-for-tat exchanges with Israel since the October 7 attacks, while other Iran backed allies of Hamas have been staging attacks.