Disaster threatening: The attacks have been launched

The Gaza Defense Agency said two doctors were killed in the central city of Deir al-Balah on Sunday, and AFP correspondents reported intense clashes and heavy fire from Israeli helicopters near Gaza City.

Witnesses said that Israel carried out attacks on Rafah near the border with Egypt on Saturday, "Jutarnji list" writes.

Emergency evacuation ordered

Defying international pressure, Israeli forces have entered eastern areas of the city, effectively closing a key border crossing for humanitarian aid and halting traffic through others.

Israel has extended an evacuation order from eastern Rafah, after it said 300,000 people had left the town since the army called on people to leave earlier in the week.

Residents piled water tanks, mattresses and other items onto vehicles and prepared to flee again.

"We don't know where to go. There is no place left in Gaza that is safe or not overcrowded... We have nowhere to go," said Farid Abu Eida, who was preparing to leave Rafah after arriving there from Gaza City.

Residents were told to go to the "humanitarian zone" Al-Mawasi, on the coast northwest of Rafah, according to "Jutarnji list".

"Extended Operation"

Hamas accused Israel of "expanding the operation in Rafah to new areas in the center and western part of the city."

Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said they had "eliminated dozens of terrorists in East Rafah", and the army said forces were fighting "armed terrorists" and had found "numerous underground tunnels".
 

"Risk of Epic Disaster"

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that Gaza faces the risk of an "epic humanitarian disaster" if Israel launches a full-scale ground operation in Rafah.

On Sunday, Guterres called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the unconditional release of all hostages and an immediate increase in humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave.

"The ceasefire will be just the beginning. It will be a long way back, away from the destruction and trauma of this war," he said at a donor conference in Kuwait.

European Union foreign minister Charles Michel wrote on social media that civilians from Rafah had been ordered to go to "unsafe zones", condemning it as "unacceptable".

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it had begun transferring 22 patients from a field hospital in Rafah, saying Israeli operations in the city were "making it impossible to provide life-saving medical assistance".

Hamas says Israel's "continuous control" and closure of the Rafah crossing are exacerbating the "humanitarian catastrophe" in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to "eliminate" Hamas in Rafah.

The Israeli army said it had reopened the Kerem Shalom crossing near Rafah on Wednesday, but aid agencies warned that getting aid through the militarized area remained extremely difficult.

"The Israeli army intensified the pressure throughout Gaza"

During the past 24 hours, the Israeli army exerted pressure on three fronts inside the Gaza Strip, reports the Qatari TV station "Al Jazeera".

Israeli forces intensified pressure on Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, as well as on the central area and the north of the Palestinian enclave.

The Israeli army issued an order to evacuate the residents of the Jabalia refugee camp in the central part of Rafah, which is located in the south of the Gaza Strip and where most of the residents of the northern part of the Palestinian enclave have taken shelter fleeing Israeli attacks.

The Israeli army began to intensify its bombardment of the Jabalia refugee camp in the past few hours, destroying residential houses and attacking evacuation centers.