BERLIN — After weeks of delays, negotiations and distractions, Israel appeared to hint this week that its assault of Rafah — a city in the Gaza Strip teeming with displaced persons above ground and riddled with Hamas tunnels below — was all but inevitable. In what some analysts and residents of the city saw as a sign of preparations for an invasion, an Israeli military official on Tuesday gave some details that include relocating civilians to a safe zone a few miles away along the Mediterranean