Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asks his army to submit a "combined plan" "evacuation" of the city's civilians and "destruction" of Hamas. Around 1.3 million Palestinians, more than half the population of the Gaza Strip, are crowded into Rafah.
On Thursday, Washington warned of a “disaster” in Rafah and assured that it would not support an operation “without serious planning” by Israel to protect civilians there. The war was sparked on October 7 when Hamas commandos infiltrated from the Gaza strip.