Israeli Prime Minister 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.
Netanyahu's planned offensive on Rafah, where an estimated 1.3 million civilians have sought refuge, drew condemnation from Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas who called it a "blatant violation of all red lines".
The hawkish premier's show of defiance against Israel's main ally came after President Joe Biden issued his strongest criticism yet of the conduct of the war, describing the response to Hamas's October 7 attack as "over the top".
Netanyahu told military officials to "submit to the cabinet a combined plan for evacuating the population and destroying the battalions" of Hamas militants holed up in Rafah, his office said.
The city is the last major 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, where hundreds of thousands are sleeping in tents or on the streets.
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 response in Gaza, in the Gaza Strip, has been over the top," the US president said.
"There are a lot of innocent people who are starving... in trouble and dying, and it's got to stop."
Witnesses reported new strikes on Rafah overnight after the Israeli military intensified air raids.
AFP images showed scenes of devastation in Rafah's streets, where people queued for increasingly scarce water.
'Die in our homes'
The Hamas-run territory's health ministry said more than 100 people were killed in overnight bombardment, including at least eight in Rafah.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said three children were killed in a strike in Rafah, where many displaced are trapped in tents pushed up against the Egyptian border.
"We heard the sound of a huge explosion next to our house... we found two children martyred in the street," said Jaber al-Bardini, 60.
"There is no safe place in Rafah. If they storm Rafah we will die in our homes. We have no choice. We don't want to go anywhere else."
The Israeli army said its forces had "eliminated 15 terrorists" in the past day in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza's biggest city.
Israeli forces raided the city's Al-Amal Hospital on Friday after a weeks-long siege during which the Palestinian Red Crescent has reported "intense artillery shelling and heavy gunfire".
Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
In response, Israel vowed to eradicate Hamas and launched air strikes and a ground offensive that have killed at least 27,947 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry.
Militants seized 250 hostages, 132 of whom are still in Gaza, but 29 are presumed dead, Israel has said.
'Anxiety and panic'
State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said an Israeli ground operation in Rafah was "not something we'd support".
"To conduct such an operation right now with no planning and little thought... would be a disaster," Patel warned.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken had conveyed Washington's concerns to Netanyahu directly during talks this week in Jerusalem, he added.
The European Union voiced alarm at the assault plan. "It would have catastrophic consequences worsening the already dire humanitarian situation and the unbearable civilian toll," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell posted on X, formerly Twitter.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said any Israeli push into Rafah "would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare".
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned against a major Israeli operation in Rafah.
"There's a sense of growing anxiety and growing panic in Rafah. People have absolutely no idea where to go after Rafah," said its chief, Philippe Lazzarini.
Ceasefire talks
Cairo hosted new talks Friday with Qatari and Hamas negotiators seeking a Gaza ceasefire and an agreement for a hostage-prisoner exchange.
A Hamas source told AFP there had been "positive and good discussions" in the Egyptian capital so far and expressed hopes for more progress.
The impact of the war has been felt widely, with violence involving Iran-backed allies of Hamas across the Middle East surging since October and drawing in US forces among others.
Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it fired dozens of rockets at an army position in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, hours after launching a salvo at northern Israel.
Friday's attack came as Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian visited Beirut, and hours after Syria said it downed two drones near Damascus that it said entered its airspace from the Golan.
It came a day after an Israeli strike on a car in the south Lebanon city of Nabatiyeh seriously wounded a Hezbollah commander, sources on both sides of the border said.
On the same day, the US military struck four unmanned surface vessels and seven cruise missiles it said Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels had been set to launch against ships in the Red Sea.