Heavy plumes of smoke continued to rise Wednesday and an explosion was heard in different areas in the direction of eastern Rafah, as seen from the makeshift Muwasi camp. Associated Press journalists heard sporadic explosions and gunfire in the area overnight, including two large blasts early Wednesday. Gaza’s vital Rafah crossing remains closed after Israeli forces seized it the day before. Rafah has been a vital conduit for humanitarian aid since the start of the war and is the only place where people can enter and exit. About 1.3 million Palestinians — more than half of Gaza’s population — are jammed into Rafah and face the prospect of having to evacuate with no good plan for where to find adequate shelter. Now that Israel has begun ordering Palestinians to evacuate parts of Rafah, it is sending them to Muwasi, a patch of land whose current inhabitants say is little more than a makeshift tent camp with squalid conditions. The United Nations and aid organizations say Muwasi is not ready to shelter the tens of thousands who might seek refuge there. Israel now controls all of Gaza’s border crossings for the first time since it withdrew troops and settlers from the territory nearly two decades ago. U.N. officials say an attack on Rafah will collapse the aid operation that is keeping the population across the Gaza Strip alive, and potentially push Palestinians into greater starvation and mass death. AP video by Zaharia Abu Jobain