Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the Israel Defense Forces to devise plans to evacuate the civilian population of Rafah, a city on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, ahead of an expected invasion.
The city is the site of the Rafah Border Crossing, the sole point of entry between Gaza and Egypt. The four Hamas battalions the IDF has not yet destroyed at this point in its counteroffensive in response to the October 7 attack are believed to be in the city, which Israel hit with air strikes Thursday night into Friday morning.
The United States is expected to push back against the ground operation once it occurs; National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said such an incursion is “not something we would support.”