Israel signals operations in southern Gaza after al-Shifa raid

Israel is planning military operations in southern Gaza and has asked residents of some neighbourhoods to evacuate their homes, according to leaflets dropped into the city of Khan Younis that signalled a potential widening of Israel’s invasion.

Israel has mainly focused operations in northern Gaza during its war against Hamas, while also carrying out air strikes south of the Wadi Gaza rivulet, an area to which it has demanded the movement of more than a million Palestinian civilians.

The Israel Defense Forces did not respond to questions about the thousands of leaflets that were dropped, telling residents of four specific neighbourhoods to leave their houses immediately.

“For your safety you have to evacuate your places of residence and head to the known shelters,” said a copy of the leaflet posted on social media. “Whoever is present near terrorists or their installations will be exposing their life to danger.”

The neighbourhoods mentioned are in eastern Khan Younis — south of the Israeli-imposed evacuation line — and were home to at least 100,000 residents before the war. Those numbers have swollen as many Gazans fled south to escape the fighting in the north, also under Israel’s orders.

The leaflets were dropped after US President Joe Biden signalled that the US had not given Israel a timeframe to conclude its campaign against Hamas, despite mounting pressure from international allies, officials in his administration and members of the Democratic party to press Israel to rein in its operation.

Biden said on Wednesday night that Israel’s war against the Islamist militant group would end “when Hamas no longer maintains the capacity to murder, abuse and just do horrific things” to Israel.

“How long it’s going to last, I don’t know,” Biden said after meeting his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping outside…