Gazans were seen fleeing Rafah on Monday after the Israeli military issued a wide evacuation order for the southern Gaza Strip.

Over the past week, the Israeli military has pushed back into Rafah, launching air and artillery strikes, sending troops into several neighborhoods, and forcing Palestinians who had recently returned under a cease-fire to flee once again.

Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip is expanding to seize “large areas” of the Gaza Strip, the defense minister said Wednesday. Israel’s offensive in the Palestinian territory was “expanding to crush and clean the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure and capture large areas that will be added to the security zones of the State of Israel,

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz announced a major expansion of the military operation in Gaza on Wednesday, saying large areas of the enclave would be seized and added to the security zones of Israel.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz says the military will expand its operation in Gaza and seize "large areas" of the territory. In a statement on Wednesday, Katz said the expanded operation aimed to "destroy and clear the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure".

The Israeli military on Monday issued sweeping evacuation orders covering most of Rafah, indicating it could soon launch another major ground operation in the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip. Israel ended its ceasefire with the Hamas militant group and renewed its air and ground war earlier this month.

It is the biggest such order since Israel resumed its offensive in the Palestinian territory earlier this month.