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Israel Gaza live updates: Israeli military calls on Gazans to leave parts of Rafah - BBC News Israel Gaza live updates: Israeli military tells 100,000 people to leave parts of Rafah - BBC News
(32 minutes later)
In Israel, some families of hostages have been expressing their fear about what a Rafah operation might mean for their loved ones.
Gil Dickman's aunt was killed during the 7 October attacks by Hamas and had two cousins taken hostage. One was released and the other remains captive. Following on from those comments from the office of Israel's defence minister, let's take a look back at recent remarks from the country's prime minister about a Rafah offensive.
"Now unfortunately we're very much afraid as families of hostages about what's going to happen," he told BBC's Newsday programme. Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that Israel would launch an invasion of the southern Gaza city regardless of truce talks with Hamas, saying that he would do this "with or without" a ceasefire deal.
"We're very much afraid that the IDF entering Rafah will risk the lives not only of innocent people, not only of soldiers but also of some hostages who might be at risk because of the attack on Rafah." "The idea that we will halt the war before achieving all of its goals is out of the question," he said.
The war began after waves of Hamas gunmen stormed across Gaza's border into Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. The group is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by many Western countries. "We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there with or without a deal, in order to achieve the total victory," according to a statement issued by Netanyahu's office.
During the subsequent Israeli military campaign in Gaza, more than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed and over 77,900 wounded, according to figures from the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. More than half of Gaza's 2.5m population is in Rafah, having fled there to escape fighting in other parts of the territory. Conditions in the overcrowded city are dire, and displaced people there have spoken of a lack of food, water and medication.
The US, along with the UN, have voiced their opposition to an invasion of Rafah.
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