Refugees in Rafah will be allowed to flee to other areas of southern Gaza, officials say

TEL AVIV — Palestinian civilians sheltering in the city of Rafah will be allowed to flee to other areas of southern Gaza before an Israeli attack but will not be allowed to return to their homes in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, two Israeli officials told NBC News on Monday.

The details of the Israeli plan for an attack on Rafah, which have not been previously reported, offer a first glimpse into how Israel proposes to deal with the roughly 1.4 million Palestinians who have sought refuge in the enclave’s southernmost city after being displaced by the fighting.

Under the plan, civilians would be allowed out of Rafah into areas south of Wadi Gaza, a river valley that is considered an informal divider between the northern and southern halves of the Strip, the officials said. Speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss military planning, they said that people could go to the city of Khan Younis, to the north of Rafah, once military operations there were finished.

The exact areas to where Palestinian civilians would be told to head — and the routes they would be told to take — have not yet been decided and will depend on conditions on the ground, the officials said.

Israel’s military submitted its plan to evacuate civilians from Rafah to the country’s war Cabinet on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. The plan is subject to approval by the war Cabinet, which consists of Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Benny Gantz, the former chief of the general staff.

The White House has warned Israel it was opposed to an attack on Rafah without “a credible and executable plan” to get civilians out of harm’s way. It was not clear if the