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In a post on social media site X, a military spokesperson also
called on residents and displaced people in the Jabalia area of
northern Gaza, and 11 other neighbourhoods in the enclave to go
immediately to the shelters west of Gaza City.
According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, 24 Palestinians
were killed overnight after Israeli jets targeted several areas
in central Gaza.
Despite heavy U.S. pressure and alarm expressed by residents and
humanitarian groups, Israel has said it will proceed with an
incursion into Rafah, where more than 1 million displaced people
have sought refuge during the seven-month-old war.
Israel's military said that so far, about 300,000 Gazans have
moved towards Al-Mawasi.
Israel says it cannot win the war without rooting out thousands
of fighters of the Islamist Hamas movement it believes are
deployed in Rafah.
Israeli tanks captured the main road dividing Rafah's eastern
and western sections on Friday, effectively encircling the
eastern side in an assault that has caused Washington to hold up
delivery of some military aid to its ally.
The White House said on Friday it was watching the Israeli
operations "with concern," but they appeared to be localized
around the shuttered Rafah crossing and did not reflect a
large-scale invasion of the city.
The war was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel
in which some 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 people
taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's military operation in Gaza, which it says aims to
eliminate Hamas, has killed close to 35,000 Palestinians,
according to Gaza's health ministry. The bombardment has laid
waste to the coastal enclave and caused a deep humanitarian
crisis.
The Biden administration said on Friday Israel's use of
U.S.-supplied weapons may have violated international
humanitarian law during its Gaza operation, in its strongest
criticism to date of Israel.
But the administration stopped short of a definitive assessment,
saying that due to the chaos of the war it could not verify
specific instances where use of those weapons might have been
involved in alleged breaches.
(Reporting by Maytaal Angel; Editing by Mark Potter and Frances
Kerry)
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