Israel army urges Gazans to evacuate part of southern city of Rafah
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military on Sunday urged residents of the southern Gaza city of Rafah to evacuate as forces launched an offensive against militants in the area.
Hamas also said a senior Hamas official was killed in an Israeli strike.
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 there 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 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.
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