Israel pounds Gaza, killing two doctors, after fresh Rafah evacuation order - even as UN chief demands ceasefire

Israel launched deadly strikes on war-torn Gaza on Sunday that claimed the lives of two doctors, after it expanded an evacuation order for Rafah.

Gaza's civil defence agency said the two medics were killed in the central town of Deir al-Balah after heavy gunfire from Israeli helicopters was reported near the city.

The strikes come as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged an immediate ceasefire, a return of hostages, and a 'surge' in humanitarian aid to the besieged Palestinian territory.

'I repeat my call, the world's call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and an immediate surge in humanitarian aid,' Guterres said in a video address to an international donors' conference in Kuwait. 

'But a ceasefire will only be the start. It will be a long road back from the devastation and trauma of this war', he added. 

Israeli strikes on Gaza continued on Sunday after it expanded an evacuation order for Rafah despite international outcry over its military incursion into eastern areas of the city, effectively shutting a key aid crossing.

It comes after Guterres said on Friday that Gaza risked an 'epic humanitarian disaster' if Israel launched a full-scale ground operation in Rafah. 

'The war in Gaza is causing horrific human suffering, devastating lives, tearing families apart and rendering huge numbers of people homeless, hungry and traumatised,' Guterres said.

Witnesses said Israel had carried out strikes in Rafah near the crossing with Egypt on Saturday, and images showed smoke rising over the city.

Israeli troops defied international opposition this week and entered eastern areas of the city, effectively shutting a key aid crossing and suspending traffic through another.

Israel expanded an evacuation order for eastern Rafah, after saying 300,000 people had fled the city since the army urged people to leave earlier in the week.

Residents piled water tanks, mattresses and other belongings onto vehicles and prepared to flee again.

'We don't know where to go,' said Farid Abu Eida, who was preparing to leave Rafah, having already been displaced there from Gaza City.

'There is no place left in Gaza that is safe or not overcrowded... There's nowhere we can go.'

Residents were told to go to the 'humanitarian zone' of Al-Mawasi, on the coast northwest of Rafah.

But EU chief Charles Michel said on social media that Rafah civilians were being ordered to 'unsafe zones', denouncing it as 'unacceptable'.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has also denounced the practice of forcing civilians into unsafe areas in Rafah as 'intolerable.'

Borrell took to X, formerly Twitter, to address the situation in southern Gaza, where Israel launched a ground attack.

'Forcing civilians to evacuate Rafah to unsafe zones is intolerable. Israel is bound by international law to provide safety to civilians,' wrote Borrell.

'We continue to urge Israel not to go ahead w/ a ground operation in Rafah. This would further exacerbate an already dire humanitarian crisis.'

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it had started transferring 22 patients from a field hospital in Rafah, saying Israel's operations in the city were 'making it impossible to provide lifesaving medical assistance'.

Hamas accused Israel of 'expanding the incursion into Rafah to include new areas in the centre and the west of the city'.

Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said 'we have eliminated dozens of terrorists in eastern Rafah' and the army said troops were fighting 'armed terrorists' at the crossing and had found 'numerous underground tunnel shafts'.

Sunday's attack comes as mediation efforts towards a truce and hostage release appears to have stalled.

US President Joe Biden said on Saturday a ceasefire would be achieved 'tomorrow' if Hamas released the hostages. 

'Israel said it's up to Hamas, if they wanted to do it, we could end it tomorrow. And the ceasefire would begin tomorrow,' Biden told a crowd of around 100 at a fundraising event in Seattle.

The US president raised the issue after warning Israel on Wednesday that he would stop supplying artillery shells and other weapons if its forces attack the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza, amid concerns about civilian casualties caused by the use of US bombs.

'If they go into Rafah, I'm not supplying the weapons that have been used… to deal with the cities,' Biden told CNN.

'We're not going to supply the weapons and the artillery shells that have been used.' 

The war began with Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli official figures.

During their attack, militants also seized hostages. Israel estimates 128 of them remain in Gaza including 36 who the military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,971 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.