Awareness of diplomatic fallout has led Israel to downplay offensive, while return to north shows difficulty of eliminating Hamas

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Two elements are particularly striking about the latest evacuation warnings issued by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to residents and displaced people in central Rafah and a considerable part of northern Gaza.

The first is that the warnings for Rafah were put at the bottom of leaflets and social media posts, almost as if the IDF was trying to downplay the coming offensive. This may be because Israeli military officials have told the media for much of the week that they were carrying out “precise, limited and targeted” operations in the city with the sole objective of seizing the key border crossing with Egypt. This is now clearly not the case, if it ever was.

Hundreds of thousands more people face displacement as military instructions suggest likely attack on centre of city

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The Israeli military has told residents of central Rafah to evacuate, signalling a major expansion of its military operations in the city and threatening the displacement of hundreds of thousands more people.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) seized the Rafah border crossing with Egypt last week in what it said was a “precise, targeted operation” after ordering the evacuation of eastern neighbourhoods. More than 150,000 people have already fled the southern city in Gaza.

Actions of Netanyahu’s government have sparked international anger and made a long-threatened ‘diplomatic tsunami’ real

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Israel is facing a long-threatened “diplomatic tsunami” on multiple fronts over its handling of the war in Gaza and the unprecedented rise in violent settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank.

Amid almost monthly sanctions announcements from the US and European capitals over settler violence, which have incrementally expanded their scope, the Guardian understands yet more potential targets are under consideration.

Patients said to have been moved on donkey carts from evacuated hospital, in situation described as ‘catastrophic’

Hospitals in Rafah risk being overwhelmed by a wave of sick and injured people if the fighting there intensifies and routes into Gaza remain impassible, doctors and medical officials in the city say.

Medics and patients hastily evacuated the Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital, one of the few remaining functioning hospitals in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, on Tuesday after the Israeli army seized the nearby border crossing with Egypt in a dawn raid.