Israel army says encircled district in Rafah, southern Gaza

OCCUPIED — The Israeli military on Sunday said it had encircled a district in Rafah in southern Gaza where it had earlier warned civilians to leave.

Israeli troops have "in recent hours" encircled Tal Al Sultan in Rafah, the military said in a statement.

Earlier on Sunday, Israel had warned residents of the area to evacuate.

In a statement on X, military spokesman Avichay Adraee said the army "launched an offensive to strike the terrorist organisations" in Rafah's Tal Al Sultan district.

Adraee called on Palestinians in the area to leave the "dangerous combat zone" and move further north.

Leaflets bearing the same message were dropped over Tal Al Sultan by drone, AFP correspondents said.

Earlier, an Israeli strike on a tent encampment in Al Mawasi, in southern Gaza's Khan Yunis area, killed senior Hamas official Salah Al Bardawil and his wife, the Islamist movement said in a statement on Sunday.

Bardawil, a well-known Hamas figure, was a member of the movement's political bureau and the Palestinian Legislative Council -- the Palestinian Authority's parliament which has not met since 2007.

The Israeli military also announced on Sunday that it was conducting operations in Beit Hanun, in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Israel, vowing to destroy Hamas, on Tuesday resumed intense bombardment of Gaza and redeployed ground troops, shattering a truce that had largely held since January 19.

Before its renewed assault, Israel in early March blocked the entry of humanitarian aid into war-ravaged Gaza and cut electricity supplies, in a bid to force Hamas to accept the Israeli terms for an extension of the ceasefire and release the 58 hostages still held by Palestinian fighters since the October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war.

The electricity supplied by Israel had fed Gaza's main water desalination plant, and the decision to cut power has aggravated already dire conditions for Gaza's 2.4 million people.

Rafah, on the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt, was already the target of a major Israeli offensive about a year ago.