Calls were growing for Israel to postpone sending troops into the overcrowded far-southern metropolis of Gaza, but the country pledged on Wednesday to continue its “powerful” operation in the war-torn city of Rafah.
Over a million Palestinians are stranded in Rafah after being forced from their homes, and last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the Israeli army orders to be ready for an invasion.
Netanyahu is facing mounting pressure not to go ahead with a full-scale ground invasion of Rafah, but he has stressed that Hamas’s battalions have to be routed out of the city.
