TEHRAN - Fears are growing over a potential Israeli genocide and mass massacre in Rafah as the regime appears set to launch a long-promised ground offensive in Gaza’s southernmost city.

Israel has ordered Palestinians to leave parts of eastern Rafah ahead of an expected ground incursion into the city. 

The Israeli military has instructed about 100,000 Palestinians to head to an "expanded humanitarian area" in Khan Younis and al-Mawasi.

An Israeli military spokesman said on Monday that the operation planned in Rafah is of "limited scope".

Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani added that the evacuation of people from eastern Rafah would be carried out in "a gradual way".

His comments came after nearly two dozen Palestinians including eight children were killed in an overnight Israeli strike in a Rafah area. 

Israel claims Hamas had launched rockets from the area which led to the killing of four soldiers at a nearby crossing. 

More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is jammed into Rafah. Most of them are displaced Palestinians who have fled their homes elsewhere in the Gaza Strip to escape Israel’s brutal onslaught. 

“Dangerous escalation”

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has warned about the repercussions of the evacuation order. 

"This is a dangerous escalation that will have consequences. The US administration, alongside the occupation, bears responsibility for this terrorism, " Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters. 
Prevent “genocide”

The Palestinian presidency has also said that Washington must be held responsible for the implications of Israel’s possible incursion into Rafah. 

The spokesperson for President Mahmoud Abbas also said the US has provided financial and military support to the regime and encouraged it to continue “massacres” against Palestinians.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh demanded that the White House “act immediately, and prevent genocide and displacement in Gaza”.
The US and some of the other Western countries such as the UK stand accused of complicity in Israel’s crimes in Gaza over their military support for the regime. 

MSF blasts Britain 

The executive director of Doctors Without Borders has criticized the UK for failing to condemn Israel’s anticipated ground assault on Rafah. 

In a post on X, Natalie Roberts wrote, “What is the UK government doing to avoid being complicit in the mass killings of Palestinians dying in their thousands from violence and disease?”.

The international charity group, also known as MSF, has also sent a new letter to the British government denouncing arms supplies to Israel in the wake of its onslaught on Gaza which has claimed the lives of more than 34,700 Palestinians over the past seven months. 

“That these attacks on humanitarian workers are allowed to happen is a political choice – yet Israel faces no political cost. Instead, the UK is morally and politically complicit in enabling this brutality with impunity, by continuing to export arms that Israel uses to maim and kill civilians,” the letter said. 

UNICEF warns of catastrophe

The United Nations children's agency has also said Israel’s offensive on Rafah will be “horrific”.

James Elder, the UNICEF spokesperson, told Al Jazeera that the assault will amount to “catastrophe upon catastrophe”.

Save the Children further warned that an incursion into Rafah would not only risk the lives of more than 600,000 children but would also severely affect the humanitarian aid response for Gaza.

“We hoped this day would never come,” Inger Ashing, CEO of the charity, added.

Israel declared war on Gaza after Hamas carried out a surprise military operation in southern Israel on October 7.

Since the start of the war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until “total victory” over Hamas.

Over the past months, he has been insisting that the Israeli army cannot emerge victorious against Hamas unless it conducts a ground military operation in Rafah.

Israel says four Hamas battalions amounting to thousands of fighters are operating in Rafah.

Israel wants to invade the city under such an excuse.

The Israeli military has bombed and stormed hospitals in Gaza and carried out massacres there over the past months. The regime claims Hamas uses hospitals as a command center without providing any evidence to back up its claims. It has resorted to such allegations to justify the massacres of civilians.

Another genocide could unfold in Rafah at the hands of Israeli troops under similar excuses.

Israel seeks to launch another bloodbath to paper over its military failures in Gaza and its incapability to eliminate Hamas.

Israel was under the illusion that intensifying attacks on Gaza would pit Palestinian people against Hamas.

But, according to assessments by the Israeli military’s intelligence, support for Hamas has grown not only among Gazans but also in the West Bank. 

Israel’s imminent incursion into Rafah also comes as the latest ceasefire talks were held in the Egyptian capital Cario.

Hamas agrees to a ceasefire

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reported late on Monday that Hamas has agreed to a ceasefire deal.

“The mujahid brother Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas movement’s political bureau, had a phone call with the Qatari Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, and with the Egyptian Minister of Intelligence, Abbas Kamel, and informed them of the Hamas movement’s approval of their proposal regarding the ceasefire agreement,” the resistance group said in a statement.

Netanyahu is under immense pressure to reach a deal with Hamas to secure the release of captives in Gaza.

Hamas took hostage nearly 250 Israelis and foreign nationals during its October 7 attack. Over 100 of them were released following a swap deal in November last year. Dozens of captives still remain in Gaza.

Israeli people and opposition have warned that an imminent incursion into Rafah would endanger the lives of the captives.

They have demanded that Netanyahu sign an agreement with Hamas to pave the way for freeing the captives.

Nonetheless, Netanyahu believes that a permanent state of war could offer him a lifeline because he is under fire for failing to prevent Hamas’ military operation which dealt severe blows to the regime.

Undoubtedly, Israel will not be able to continue the Gaza war without the support of the US and some other Western countries.

Hence, Washington and its allies would be responsible for the massacres that Israel may commit in Rafah.