Netanyahu orders military to prepare plans to "evacuate" Rafah
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Jerusalem: Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office informed that the premier had ordered his army to prepare plans to "evacuate" Rafah, the city where more than two million Gazans crowded together to take refuge from Israel's onslaught, Agence France-Presse reported.
On Friday, Netanyahu demanded his military officials table a combined plan to evacuate the population of the city and destroy battalions of Hamas forces there.
Israel had opened an attack on Rafah on Friday, striking the city by air and killing eight people, according to the Hamas administration in Gaza.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he had ordered his forces to "operate" in Rafah.
However, the US, which provides Israel with military aid in billions of dollars for the war, said on Thursday that it would not support Israel for a ground offensive in Rafah if the same is not properly planned. The US State Department said that such an attack risked a "disaster."
Joe Biden said that Israel should stop and that the offensive has gone beyond limits. He said that there were a lot of innocent people starving, in trouble and dying, and therefore, the attack had to stop.
In the air strikes in the enclave, more than 100 people died in a single night, and at least eight of the deaths were in Rafah, Hamas' health ministry stated. Out of the eight, three were children, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society informed.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army claimed on Friday that it killed 15 terrorists in Khan Younis on Thursday.
On Thursday, ministers of Arab nations met in Riyadh to discuss the ever-worsening crisis in Gaza. They called for an immediate ceasefire as well as emphasised the need for a two-state solution, Israel recognising the Palestine state.
It was Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faizal Bin Farhan who called the Thursday meeting in Riyadh together. Saudi state's own news agency reported that the meeting hosted the foreign ministers of Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates along with the Secretary-General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Hussein al-Sheikh.