In a statement announcing the orders on Friday, Mr. Netanyahu’s office did not give any details of when the evacuations might be carried out, when the Israeli military might enter the city or where people might go.
Mr. Netanyahu’s office said it would be impossible to realize Israel’s goal of smashing Hamas’s rule in Gaza without destroying what it said were the group’s four battalions in Rafah, on Egypt’s border.
The military’s “combined plan” would have to both “evacuate the civilian population and topple the battalions,” the statement said.
“Any forceful action in Rafah would require the evacuation of the civilian population from combat zones,” it said.
After Mr. Netanyahu said this week that he had ordered troops to prepare to enter Rafah, aid agencies, the United Nations and U.S. officials said the prospect of an incursion there was particularly alarming.
Persons:
Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden, “, Netanyahu
Organizations:
United Nations
Locations:
Rafah, Gaza, Egypt’s