The Israeli military says it believes some 100,000 people will need to evacuate parts of eastern Rafah as part of a "limited scope" operation.
The Israeli Defense Forces also said there would be no timeframe in place on the evacuations, but that "operational assessments" would be made.
It added that the "expanded humanitarian area" to house civilians would include "field hospitals, tents and increased amounts of food, water, medication and additional supplies."
Israeli military 'encourages' Rafah residents to move
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have urged residents of eastern Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, to evacuate to an "expanded humanitarian area."
The call comes ahead of a possible offensive.
The Israeli military says it "encourages" the residents to move to an area in the al-Mawasi refugee camp, on the Mediterranean not far from the border with Egypt.
"In accordance with the approval of the government, an ongoing situation assessment will guide the gradual movement of civilians in the specified areas, to the humanitarian areas," the IDF said in a Telegram post.
The IDF described the evacuation as "temporary," and added that calls for the relocation would be "conveyed through posters, SMS messages, phone calls and media broadcasts in Arabic."
"The IDF will continue pursuing Hamas everywhere in Gaza until all the hostages that they are holding in captivity are back home."
On Sunday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant claimed Hamas wasn't serious about a deal and warned of "a powerful operation in the very near future in Rafah."
His comments came after Hamas, listed as a terrorist group in several countries including Germany and the United States, attacked Israel's main crossing point Sunday for delivering assistance, killing three soldiers.
UN agencies warn of 'bloodbath' and 'tragedy beyond words'
The United Nations has warned that, if Israel moves forward with a military operation into the densely packed border city of Rafah, hundreds of thousands would be "at imminent risk of death."
That warning came from Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Rafah, a critical entry point for humanitarian aid, is filled with displaced Palestinians, many in tent camps. The UN estimates there are currently 1.4 million people sheltering there.
Meanwhile, the UN's humanitarian chief Martin Griffith said that, regardless of any humanitarian plan, the invasion would be a disaster for civilians living in Rafah.
"The simplest truth is that a ground operation in Rafah will be nothing short of a tragedy beyond words. No humanitarian plan can counter that," Griffiths said .
The World Health Organization's director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has also warned of possible dire implications.
"WHO is deeply concerned that a full-scale military operation in Rafah, Gaza, could lead to a bloodbath, and further weaken an already broken health system," Tedros said on X, formerly Twitter.
The WHO said in a statement that a Rafah incursion would substantially increase mortality and morbidity.
"A new wave of displacement would exacerbate overcrowding, further limiting access to food, water, health and sanitation services, leading to increased disease outbreaks, worsening levels of hunger, and additional loss of lives," the UN health agency said.
"The broken health system would not be able to cope with a surge in casualties and deaths that a Rafah incursion would cause."
On Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel had yet to present "a credible plan to genuinely protect the civilians who are in harm's way."
"Absent such a plan, we can't support a major military operation going into Rafah because the damage it would do is beyond what's acceptable," Blinken said.
Israel says Hamas refusals make Rafah offensive necessary
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has said military action in Rafah is required because of Hamas' refusals to accept mediated proposals for a Gaza truce, according to a Defense Ministry statement released after Gallant met with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Sunday.
"During their discussion, Gallant discussed the efforts undertaken to achieve the release of hostages and indicated that at this stage, Hamas refuses the frameworks at hand," the Israeli Defence Ministry said in a statement.
The Israeli defense minister "emphasized that military action is required, including in the area of Rafah, at the lack of an alternative," it added.
During the October 7 Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Israel, nearly 1,200 people were killed and some 250 taken hostage, of which an estimated 128 remain in captivity, not all of whom are believed to still be alive.
Senior Hamas official Hossam Badran last week accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to undermine the latest truce proposal with his threats to go into Rafah "with or without" a deal. Badran said that insistence was calculated to "thwart any possibility of concluding an agreement."
In February, Netanyahu had said any truce deal would only delay, not prevent, a Rafah operation.
Israel's leaders have repeatedly said they need to carry out a ground invasion of Rafah to defeat Hamas. Israeli officials have hinted at a military operation in Rafah since at least February, in order to root out the last remaining Hamas battalions believed to be holed up in the city, where more than a million displaced civilians are also sheltering.
Hezbollah says it fired rockets at Israeli base
The Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group said it fired a large number of rockets at an Israeli base in the occupied Golan Heights.
Hezbollah fighters launched "dozens of Katyusha rockets" targeting "the headquarters of the Golan Division... at Nafah base", the group said.
The militant organization said the attack was "in response to the enemy's attack targeting the Bekaa region" in eastern Lebanon.
Lebanese official media earlier said three people had been wounded in an Israeli strike early Monday when the Israeli army said it struck a Hezbollah "military compound."
Lebanon's official National News Agency said the attack had hit a factory and killed three civilians.
There have been near-daily cross-border exchanges since Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, triggering war in the Gaza Strip.
More than 390 Hezbollah fighters and 70 civilians have been killed in the fighting on the Lebanese side of the border, according to a toll by the AFP news agency.
The Israeli military said 11 soldiers and nine civilians have been killed near the northern border to Lebanon since hostilities flared after October 7.
Iran-backed Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and several Sunni Arab countries, while the EU lists its armed wing as a terrorist group.
