Israel PM orders army to prepare to evacuate civilians from Gaza's Rafah
Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the army to prepare to «evacuate» hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza's Rafah, his office said Friday, after Washington warned it would not support any ground assault on the city.
The show of defiance against Israel's main ally came after President Joe Biden issued his strongest criticism yet of Netanyahu's conduct of the war, warning the response to Hamas's October 7 attack had been «over the top».
Netanyahu told military and security officials to «submit to the cabinet a combined plan for evacuating the population and destroying the battalions» of Palestinian militant group Hamas holed up in Rafah, a statement from his office said.
The city is the last main population centre in the Gaza Strip that Israeli troops have yet to enter but is also the main point of entry for desperately needed relief supplies.
Palestinians displaced from other Gaza towns and cities have flooded into Rafah, sending its population soaring to an estimated 1.3 million, more than half of the territory's 2.4 million population.
The United States is Israel's main international backer, providing it with billions of dollars in military aid.
But the US State Department said it does not support a ground offensive in Rafah, warning that, if not properly planned, such an operation risked «disaster».
And in a sign of his growing frustration with Israel's leadership, Biden said its military retaliation for the October 7 attack had gone too far.
«I'm of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the
