Israeli military orders the evacuation of Gaza's southern city of Rafah

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel's military on Monday issued sweeping evacuation orders covering Rafah and nearby areas, indicating it could soon launch another major ground operation in the Gaza Strip's southernmost city.

Israel ended its ceasefire with the Hamas militant group and renewed its air and ground war earlier this month. At the beginning of March it cut off all supplies of food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid to the territory's roughly 2 million Palestinians to pressure Hamas to accept proposed changes to the truce agreement.

Israel's military ordered Palestinians to head to Muwasi, a sprawl of squalid tent camps along the coast. The orders came during Eid al-Fitr, a normally festive Muslim holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

Last May, Israel launched a major operation in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, leaving large parts in ruins. The military seized a strategic corridor along the border as well as the Rafah crossing with Egypt, Gaza’s only gateway to the outside world that was not controlled by Israel.

Israel was supposed to withdraw from the corridor under the ceasefire it signed with Hamas in January under U.S. pressure, but it later refused to do it, citing the need to prevent weapons smuggling.

On Monday, people fled with their belongings loaded onto donkeys and stacked on car roofs. Families traveled by foot carrying luggage as children held the adults' hands.

“We are dying. There is no food, no drink, no electricity, no medicine,” said Hanadi Dahoud, who was displaced from the southern city of Khan Younis. “We want to live. We just want to live. We are tired.”

The United Nations said the continuous forced movement of people was causing panic and uncertainty.

“People are treated like pinballs with constant military orders playing with their fate and lives," said Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees.

Dozens gathered at a funeral for some of the 15 emergency responders killed by Israeli fire during a ground operation in Rafah last week. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies called it the deadliest attack on its medics in several years.

Raed al-Nems, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent, said the paramedics were “killed in cold blood” despite wearing uniforms and operating in clearly labeled ambulances. At funeral prayers, their shrouds were draped with Red Crescent banners.

Israel's military has said its forces opened fire on several vehicles that raised suspicions by advancing without headlights or emergency signals. The military said a Hamas operative and eight other militants were among those killed.

The United Nations humanitarian office said the dead included eight Red Crescent workers, six members of Gaza's Civil Defense, which operates under the Hamas-run government, and a U.N. worker.

Rescuers were only allowed to access the area nearly a week later to recover the bodies. Footage of Sunday's recovery operation released by the U.N. showed Civil Defense workers digging into a mound of sand and pulling out a body wearing the same orange vest as theirs.

Israel has vowed to intensify its military operations until Hamas releases the remaining 59 hostages it holds — 24 of them believed to be alive. Israel has also demanded that Hamas disarm and leave the territory, conditions that were not included in the ceasefire agreement and which Hamas has rejected.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel would take charge of security in Gaza after the war and implement U.S. President Donald Trump's proposal to resettle Gaza's population in other countries, describing it as “voluntary emigration.”

That plan has been universally rejected by Palestinians, who view it as forcible expulsion from their homeland. Human rights experts say it would likely violate international law.

Hamas has insisted on implementing the signed agreement, which called for the remainder of the hostages to be released in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli pullout. Negotiations over those parts of the agreement were supposed to begin in February but only preliminary talks have been held.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, rampaging through army bases and farming communities and killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The militants took another 251 people hostage, most of whom have been released in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. At its height, the war had displaced some 90% of Gaza's population, with many fleeing multiple times.

Large areas of Gaza have been destroyed, and it's unclear how or when anything will be rebuilt.

Khaled reported from Cairo.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Displaced Palestinians, who flee from Rafah, arrive in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Monday, March 31, 2025, after the Israeli military issued sweeping evacuation orders covering most of Rafah. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinians, who flee from Rafah, arrive in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Monday, March 31, 2025, after the Israeli military issued sweeping evacuation orders covering most of Rafah. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinians, who flee from Rafah, arrive in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Monday, March 31, 2025, after the Israeli military issued sweeping evacuation orders covering most of Rafah. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinians, who flee from Rafah, arrive in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Monday, March 31, 2025, after the Israeli military issued sweeping evacuation orders covering most of Rafah. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners carry the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners carry the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners carry the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners react during the funeral of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners carry the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners carry the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, during their funeral in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Mon day, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners carry the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners follow the convoy carrying the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinians, who flee from Rafah, arrive in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Monday, March 31, 2025, after the Israeli military issued sweeping evacuation orders covering most of Rafah. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners gather around the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners walk by the bodies of the Abu Sultan family, killed when an Israeli army strike hit their tent before their burial at the hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Hassan Abu Sultan mourns over the body of her son Jehad, who, along with his wife and three children, was killed when an Israeli army strike hit their tent, as heir bodies lie on the floor at a hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, awaiting burial on the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar's ruling military declared a temporary ceasefire in the country's civil war Wednesday to facilitate relief efforts following a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that has killed more than 2,800 people.

The announcement by the military's high command was reported late Wednesday on state television MRTV, which said the truce would run until April 22 and was aimed at showing compassion for people affected by Friday's quake.

The announcement followed unilateral temporary ceasefires announced by armed resistance groups opposed to military rule. Those groups must refrain from attacking the state, or regrouping, or else the military will take "necessary" measures, the army's statement said.

Earlier Wednesday, rescuers pulled two men alive from the ruins of a hotel in Myanmar's capital and a third from a guesthouse in another city, five days after the quake. But most teams were finding only bodies.

The quake hit midday Friday, toppling thousands of buildings, collapsing bridges and buckling roads. The death toll rose to 2,886 Wednesday, with another 4,639 injured, according to state television MRTV. Local reports suggest much higher figures.

The earthquake came amid civil war in Myanmar, making a dire humanitarian crisis even worse. More than 3 million people had been displaced from their homes and nearly 20 million were in need even before it hit, according to the United Nations.

Two of the major armed resistance forces fighting the military, which seized power in 2021 from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, had announced ceasefires to facilitate the humanitarian response to the earthquake, though the military initially did not relent in its attacks.

In the capital, Naypyitaw, a team of Turkish and local rescue workers used an endoscopic camera to locate Naing Lin Tun on a lower floor of the damaged hotel where he worked. They pulled him gingerly through a hole jackhammered through a floor and loaded him on to a gurney nearly 108 hours after he was first trapped.

Shirtless and covered in dust, he appeared weak but conscious in a video released by the local fire department, as he was fitted with an IV drip and taken away. State-run MRTV reported later in the day that another man was saved from the same building, more than 121 hours after the quake struck. Both were age 26.

Another man was rescued by a team of Malaysian and local crews from a collapsed guesthouse in the Sagaing township, near the epicenter of the earthquake close to Myanmar's second-largest city, Mandalay.

The earthquake also rocked neighboring Thailand, causing the collapse of a high-rise building under construction in Bangkok. One body was removed from the rubble early Wednesday, raising the death total in Bangkok to 22 with 35 injured, primarily at the construction site.

The Three Brotherhood Alliance, one of a powerful group of militias that has taken a large swath of the country from the military, announced a unilateral one-month ceasefire on Tuesday to facilitate the humanitarian response.

The shadow opposition National Unity Government founded by lawmakers ousted in 2021 had already called a ceasefire for its forces.

The announcements had put pressure on the military government to follow suit.

Before Wednesday's ceasefire announcement, an opposition militia belonging to the Brotherhood Alliance reported that the military fired on a relief convoy of nine Chinese Red Cross vehicles late Tuesday in the northern part of Shan state near Ohn Ma Tee village.

The Ta’ang National Liberation Army said that the Chinese Red Cross was bringing supplies to Mandalay and had reported its route to the military.

But Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for the military government, said that the convoy hadn't notified authorities of its route ahead of time, MRTV reported. While not mentioning the Red Cross, he said that security forces had fired into the air to deter a convoy that refused to stop near Ohn Ma Tee village, the site of recent fighting with the TNLA.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun didn't comment on the attack.

Neighboring China is economically important to Myanmar, and also one of the military's largest suppliers of weapons, along with Russia.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it was looking into the matter.

Countries have pledged millions in assistance to help Myanmar and humanitarian aid organizations with the monumental task ahead.

Australia on Wednesday said it was providing another $4.5 million, in addition to $1.25 million it had already committed, and had a rapid response team on the ground.

India has flown in aid and sent two navy ships with supplies as well as providing around 200 rescue workers. Multiple other countries have sent teams, including 270 people from China, 212 from Russia and 122 from the United Arab Emirates.

A three-person team from the U.S. Agency for International Development arrived Tuesday to determine how best to respond given limited U.S. resources due to the slashing of the foreign aid budget and dismantling of the agency as an independent operation. Washington has said it would provide $2 million in emergency assistance.

Most of the details so far have come from Mandalay, which was near the epicenter of the earthquake, and Naypyitaw, about 270 kilometers (165 miles) north of Mandalay.

Many areas are without power, telephone or cellphone connections, and difficult to reach by road, but more reports are beginning to trickle in.

In Singu township, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) north of Mandalay, 27 gold miners were killed in a cave-in, the independent Democratic Voice of Burma reported.

In the area of Inle Lake, northeast of the capital, many people died when homes built on wooden stilts in the water collapsed in the earthquake, the Global New Light of Myanmar reported without providing specific figures.

Matthew Lee in Washington, Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Jintamas Saksornchai in Bangkok contributed to this report.

A damaged pagoda is seen in the aftermath of Friday's earthquake in Amarapura township, Mandalay, Myanmar, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo)

A person enquires about his relative working at an under construction high-rise building that collapsed after Friday's earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

A person watches the site of an under-construction high-rise building that collapsed after an earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Workers wait to get their identification checked before entering into the site of an under-construction high-rise building that collapsed after an earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Soldiers from fire services spray water to settle the dust as heavy machineries are deployed to clear the rubble from an under construction high-rise building that collapsed after Friday's earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Birds fly past the site of an under construction high-rise building that collapsed after an earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Damaged buildings are seen in the aftermath of Friday's earthquake in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo)

Electric workers rush to repair power facilities like wires and cables at a quake site in the aftermath of Friday's earthquake, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo)

Local residents ride motorbikes while rescuers clean debris from damaged buildings in the aftermath of Friday's earthquake in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo)

Damaged buildings are seen in the aftermath of Friday's earthquake in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo)

People inspect their homes, damaged following Friday's earthquake in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo)

Myanmar's police rescuers carry belonging from the site of a collapsed building in the aftermath of Friday's earthquake in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo)

People inspect their homes, damaged following Friday's earthquake in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo)

Local residents ride motorbikes near damaged buildings in the aftermath of Friday's earthquake, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo)

Rescuers clean debris from damaged buildings in the aftermath of Friday's earthquake in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo)

People clean debris from damaged buildings in the aftermath of Friday's earthquake in Mandalay, Myanmar, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo)

Buddhist novice monks take rest under temporary shelter, near a road in the aftermath of Friday's earthquake in Mandalay, Myanmar, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo)

Damaged pagoda is seen in the aftermath of Friday's earthquake in Amarapura township, Mandalay, Myanmar, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo)

Damaged pagoda is seen in the aftermath of Friday's earthquake in Amarapura township, Mandalay, Myanmar, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo)

A Buddhist monk gestures as he talks near a damaged pagoda in the aftermath of Friday's earthquake in Amarapura township, Mandalay, Myanmar, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo)

Buddhist novice monks sit under temporary shelter near a road, in the aftermath of Friday's earthquake in Mandalay, Myanmar, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo)

Buddhist novice monks line up to have their alms under temporary shelter near a road in the aftermath of Friday's earthquake in Mandalay, Myanmar, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo)

Local resident carrying a bike walks past a damaged building in the aftermath of Friday's earthquake in Mandalay, Myanmar, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo)

Damaged pagoda is seen in the aftermath of Friday's earthquake in Amarapura township, Mandalay, Myanmar, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo)

Damaged buildings are seen in the aftermath of Friday's earthquake in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo)

Damaged buildings are seen in the aftermath of Friday's earthquake in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo)

A rescuer works through rubble of a collapsed building following Friday's earthquake in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo)