More than a hundred thousand Palestinians fled Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, on Saturday, following Israeli warnings to evacuate ahead of an imminent military offensive that will open a bloody new phase of the seven-month conflict.

The roads leading out of Rafah were filled with Palestinians who, with their meager possessions, left the meager ruins and sought new, safer ground. More and more people have been fleeing Rafah every day since the Israel Defense Forces ordered the evacuation of eastern neighborhoods shortly before seizing the border crossing with Egypt in the east of the city on Tuesday.

The total number of civilians who have fled eastern Rafah now exceeds 280,000, according to the UN, with nearly half having left in the past 24 hours.

Last week’s attack now appears to have been only the harbinger of a larger offensive long in the making by Israel, despite repeated calls for restraint from the UN, US and humanitarian agencies.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, is not backing down despite US pressure to stop a full-scale attack on Rafah. Netanyahu insists that Hamas is hiding most of its top leaders and forces there, a decision that is leading the Biden administration to halt the delivery of 3,500 bombs. Last week Netanyahu said Israel would “stand alone” and fight “tooth and nail” if necessary.

The IDF instructed residents to evacuate the center of Rafah early Saturday morning through leaflets and messages on social media. Analysts said this suggests Israeli forces will advance into the center of Rafah as early as Sunday and are likely to continue their advance across the city.

In a statement, the IDF said its forces “continue to act against the terrorist organization Hamas, which uses the people of Gaza as human shields for its terrorist activities and infrastructure.”

About a million people displaced from other parts of Gaza had sought refuge in Rafah for months. The city is now “emptying out”, UN officials told the Observer, with an even greater number of citizens expected to leave today, Sunday in one of the largest displacements in months.

Biden: Gaza truce possible even “tomorrow” if Hamas releases hostages

At the same time, US President Joe Biden stated that a ceasefire is possible even from “tomorrow” in the war between Israel and Hamas, if the Palestinian movement releases the hostages it is holding.

“There would be a ceasefire tomorrow if Hamas released the hostages,” Biden said at an event near Seattle, in the northwest of the US.

On Thursday, another round of indirect talks aimed at a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, after seven months of war, ended without an agreement in Cairo.

About 132 Israeli hostages are believed to remain in Gaza, although half may now be dead.

In search of the head of Hamas

At the same time, the Israeli army continues its operations from street to street and from neighborhood to neighborhood, intending to “sweep” the city Rafa with the aim of destabilizing every pocket and every center of it Hamas in the area.

According to Israeli media, Tel Aviv is looking the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, it seeks to “dislodge” Israel by all means, considering that its destruction will weaken the strength of the Palestinian organization to a sufficient extent, which will eventually lead to its disintegration. However, in the last 24 hours the information of the Israeli secret services seems to turn the tide, with unknown, for now, consequences on the general military and strategic planning of the Israeli operations in Gaza. More specifically, Israeli intelligence now estimates that Yahya Sinwar is not in Rafah, where Israel has launched ground operations to locate the Hamas leader and his staff, but is hiding in a tunnel in the Khan Younis area, from where the israeli army withdrew about a month ago.