Israel’s offensive had emptied neighborhoods, shuttered the city’s central hospital and killed more people than its remaining health facilities could keep up with. But for the residents of this dusty city of 150,000 people — until recently famous as the endpoint for hundreds of smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt — the assault had unleashed such a wave of terror and death that Lieutenant Goldin, whose fate was unknown when the assault began on Friday, was scarcely considered.

“It is just an excuse,” said Dr. Abdullah Shehadeh, director of the Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital, the city’s largest. “There is no reason for them to force the women and children of Gaza to pay the price for something that happened on the battlefield.”

After two days of Israeli shelling and airstrikes, central Rafah appeared deserted on Saturday, with shops closed and residents hiding in their homes. The presence of Israeli forces east of the city had caused many to flee west, crowding in with friends and relatives in neighborhoods by the Mediterranean.

More than 120 Palestinians were killed in Rafah alone on Friday and Saturday — the deadliest two days in the city since the war began 25 days ago. Those deaths, and hundreds of injuries, overwhelmed the city’s health care facilities.

Making matters worse, Israeli shells hit the central Najjar hospital on Friday afternoon, Dr. Shehadeh said, leading its employees and patients to evacuate.