ICC's Prosecutor ‘Deeply Concerned’ by Situation in Rafah

People stand around craters caused by Israeli bombardment in Rafah on the southern Gaza Strip on February 12, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP)
People stand around craters caused by Israeli bombardment in Rafah on the southern Gaza Strip on February 12, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP)
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ICC's Prosecutor ‘Deeply Concerned’ by Situation in Rafah

People stand around craters caused by Israeli bombardment in Rafah on the southern Gaza Strip on February 12, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP)
People stand around craters caused by Israeli bombardment in Rafah on the southern Gaza Strip on February 12, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP)

International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan is "deeply concerned by the reported bombardment and potential ground incursion by Israeli forces in Rafah", he said on social media platform X on Monday.

He reiterated that the ICC was "actively investigating any crimes allegedly committed" in Gaza and said that "those who are in breach of the law will be held accountable".

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has said four Hamas battalions are in Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of people displaced by violence further north are trapped in desperate conditions.

It says Israel cannot achieve its goal of eliminating the militants while they remain there. Civilians should be evacuated from the combat zone, it said.

Khan also called for the immediate release of all the hostages held in Gaza after Hamas' deadly Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, adding that this "also represents an important focus of our investigations".

Israel is not a member of the Hague-based court and does not recognize its jurisdiction. But Khan in October stressed his court had jurisdiction over any potential war crimes carried out by Hamas in Israel and by Israelis in the Gaza Strip.



Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
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Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)

Israel’s military ordered the evacuation Saturday of a crowded part of Gaza designated as a humanitarian zone, saying it is planning an operation against Hamas militants in Khan Younis, including parts of Muwasi, a makeshift tent camp where thousands are seeking refuge.

The order comes in response to rocket fire that Israel says originates from the area. It's the second evacuation issued in a week in an area designated for Palestinians fleeing other parts of Gaza. Many Palestinians have been uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israel's punishing air and ground campaign.

On Monday, after the evacuation order, multiple Israeli airstrikes hit around Khan Younis, killing at least 70 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, citing figures from Nasser Hospital.

The area is part of a 60-square-kilometer (roughly 20-square-mile) “humanitarian zone” to which Israel has been telling Palestinians to flee to throughout the war. Much of the area is blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid, United Nations and humanitarian groups say. About 1.8 million Palestinians are sheltering there, according to Israel's estimates. That's more than half Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million.

The war in Gaza has killed more than 39,100 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The UN estimated in February that some 17,000 children in the territory are now unaccompanied, and the number is likely to have grown since.

The war began with an assault by Hamas fighters on southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages. About 115 are still in Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.