Israel called on Saturday for Palestinians in more areas of Gaza’s southern city of Rafah to evacuate and head to what it calls an expanded humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi, in a further indication that the military is pressing ahead with its plans for a ground attack on Rafah.

In a post on social media site X, a military spokesperson also called on residents and displaced people in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, and 11 other neighbourhoods in the enclave to go immediately to shelters west of Gaza City.

The Palestinian health ministry said at least 37 Palestinians, 24 of them from central Gaza areas, were killed in overnight airstrikes across the enclave, including in Rafah.

Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, on Saturday released a video of a man held hostage in Gaza by Palestinian militants and seen alive in the footage.

The man is seen speaking in the 11-second clip, which is superimposed with text in Arabic and Hebrew that reads: “Time is running out. Your government is lying”.

The video posted on the group’s Telegram channel and showing the hostage speaking under duress, was the third time footage released in less than a month of captives held in Gaza.

On April 27 the group released a video showing two hostages alive—Keith Siegel and Omri Miran.

Three days before that it broadcast another video showing hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin alive.

Some 250 people were abducted to the Gaza Strip on October 7 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel.

Israeli officials say 128 of them are still held captive in the Palestinian territory, including 36 who are dead.

The Israeli military on Saturday ordered Palestinians to leave more areas of eastern Rafah and the northern Gaza Strip as it pressed ahead with its fight against Hamas militants.

The latest evacuation order, which some residents told AFP they had received via text and audio messages to their phones, comes days after Israeli tanks and troops entered Rafah, the Palestinian territory’s southernmost city, and seized a key crossing on the Egyptian border.

Residents and displaced Gazans were told to leave parts of Rafah’s Shabura refugee camp, administrative area, Jenina and Khirbet al-Adas neighbourhoods, and head to the coastal “humanitarian area” in Al-Mawasi.

Aid groups and UN officials have warned that the area was already overcrowded and not ready to receive an influx of people.

Israeli strikes hit Gaza on Saturday after renewed US criticism over its conduct of the war and a UN warning of “epic” disaster if an outright invasion of crowded Rafah city occurs.

AFP journalists reported the strikes in various sectors of the coastal territory, where the UN says aid is blocked after Israeli troops defied international opposition and entered eastern Rafah this week, effectively shutting two crossings.

A long-awaited US State Department report on Friday said Israel likely violated norms on international law in its use of weapons from the United States — its main military supplier — but it did not find enough evidence to block shipments.