Guardian, UK - More than a hundred thousand Palestinians fled Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, on Saturday, after Israeli warnings to evacuate before an imminent military assault that will open a bloody new phase of the seven-month-long conflict. Roads leading out of Rafah were choked with long columns of young and old, sick and healthy, riding in overloaded pick-up trucks and battered cars, in pony carts and on hand-pulled trolleys. Many walked, carrying their belongings, under a searing summer sun. Some were pushed in wheelchairs or even carried. More people each day have fled Rafah since the Israel Defense Forces ordered the evacuation of eastern neighbourhoods shortly before seizing the border crossing with Egypt to the east of the city on Tuesday in what the IDF said was a “precise, limited operation” to stop Hamas smuggling weapons or funds into Gaza. The total is now than 280,000, according to a count by United Nations officials in the city, with almost half leaving in the last 24 hours.
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