Jerusalem:

Israel called on Saturday for Palestinians in more areas of Gaza’s southern city of Rafah to evacuate and head to what it calls an expanded humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi, in a further indication that the military is pressing ahead with its plans for a ground attack on Rafah.

In a post on social media site X, a military spokesperson also called on residents and displaced people in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, and 11 other neighbourhoods in the enclave to go immediately to the shelters west of Gaza City.

According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, 24 Palestinians were killed overnight after Israeli jets targeted several areas in central Gaza.

Despite heavy US pressure and alarm expressed by residents and humanitarian groups, Israel has said it will proceed with an incursion into Rafah, where more than 1 million displaced people have sought refuge during the seven-month-old war.

Israel’s military said that so far, about 300,000 Gazans have moved towards Al-Mawasi.

Israel says it cannot win the war without rooting out thousands of fighters of the Islamist Hamas movement it believes are deployed in Rafah.

Israeli tanks captured the main road dividing Rafah’s eastern and western sections on Friday, effectively encircling the eastern side in an assault that has caused Washington to hold up delivery of some military aid to its ally.

The White House said on Friday it was watching the Israeli operations “with concern,” but they appeared to be localized around the shuttered Rafah crossing and did not reflect a large-scale invasion of the city.

The war was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 people taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s military operation in Gaza, which it says aims to eliminate Hamas, has killed close to 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The bombardment has laid waste to the coastal enclave and caused a deep humanitarian crisis.

The Biden administration said on Friday Israel’s use of U.S.-supplied weapons may have violated international humanitarian law during its Gaza operation, in its strongest criticism to date of Israel.

But the administration stopped short of a definitive assessment, saying that due to the chaos of the war it could not verify specific instances where use of those weapons might have been involved in alleged breaches.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Jerusalem:

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations expressed disappointment Thursday at US President Joe Biden’s threat to stop certain arms supplies to Israel if it invades the crowded Gaza city of Rafah.

“This is a difficult and very disappointing statement to hear from a president to whom we have been grateful since the beginning of the war,” Gilad Erdan told Israeli public broadcaster Kan radio, in Israel’s first reaction to Biden’s warning.

Israel has defied international objections by sending in tanks and conducting “targeted raids” in the border city, which it says is home to Hamas’s last remaining battalions — but is also crowded with displaced Palestinian civilians.

“If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used… to deal with the cities,” Biden said in an interview with CNN, in his starkest warning to Israel since the start of the war. 

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs,” Biden said. “It’s just wrong.”

Erdan responded that Biden’s comments would be interpreted by Israel’s foes Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah as “something that gives them hope to succeed”.

“If Israel is restricted from entering an area as important and central as Rafah where there are thousands of terrorists, hostages and leaders of Hamas, how exactly are we supposed to achieve our goals?” he said.

“This is not a defensive weapon. This is about certain offensive bombs. In the end the State of Israel will have to do what it thinks needs to be done for the security of its citizens.”

AFP journalists reported heavy shelling in Rafah early Thursday, and the Israeli military later said it was also striking “Hamas positions” further north in the centre of the Gaza Strip.

On Tuesday, Israeli forces seized Rafah’s border crossing into Egypt, which has served the main entry point for aid into besieged Gaza.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)