The estimate is around 100,000 people,” a military spokesman told journalists when asked how many people were being evacuated.
About 1.2 million people are currently sheltering in Rafah, according to the World Health Organization, most having fled there from elsewhere in Gaza during the seven-month war between Israel and Hamas Palestinian militants.
The evacuation “is part of our plans to dismantle Hamas we had a violent reminder of their presence and their operational abilities in Rafah yesterday,” the military spokesman said.
“This is an evacuation plan to get people out of harm’s way.”
On Sunday, three Israeli soldiers were killed, and a dozen wounded, the army said, when a barrage of rockets was fired towards the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza.
The army said the rockets were fired from an area adjacent to Rafah.
The soldiers were hit while guarding heavy machinery, tanks, and bulldozers stationed in the area.
Rain fell on Monday as the army airdropped leaflets advising about the evacuation, an AFP correspondent said.
Rocket attack
Hamas’s armed wing claimed the rocket attack, which led Israeli authorities to close the crossing, used to deliver aid into Gaza.
The Israeli army Monday called on Gazans living in eastern Rafah to head to an “expanded humanitarian area” in the Palestinian territory, ahead of an expected military operation in the southern Gaza city.
The prospect of an invasion in Rafah has triggered alarm from aid groups and world leaders. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said Israel had yet to present “a credible plan to genuinely protect the civilians who are in harm’s way”, and without such a plan Washington “can’t support a major military operation going into Rafah.”
Soon after the war in Gaza began on October 7, Israel told Palestinians living in the north of Gaza to move to “safe zones” in the territory’s south including Rafah.
But Rafah has been repeatedly bombed from the air and Palestinians regularly say that no area of Gaza is safe.
“The IDF has expanded the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi to accommodate the increased levels of aid flowing into Gaza,” the military statement said, referring to a coastal area near Rafah.
“This morning we began a limited scope operation to temporarily evacuate residents in the eastern part of Rafah,” a military spokesman told journalists in an online briefing. “This is a limited-scope operation.”
In its statement, the military added that messages “to temporarily move to the humanitarian area will be conveyed through posters, SMS messages, phone calls and media broadcasts in Arabic.”
Troops will continue to pursue Hamas militants “everywhere in Gaza until all hostages that they are holding in captivity are back home”, the statement said.