Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called on Hamas to swiftly conclude a hostage agreement with the Israeli government in order to protect the Palestinian people and prevent an Israeli attack on the city of Rafah, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.
An attack on Rafah would lead to thousands of victims, suffering and displacement, said Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority which controls Palestinian areas of the West Bank.
His comments come as the Israeli government prepares a ground offensive in the city of Rafah. Israel's aim is to eliminate the last fighting units of Hamas, an Islamist Palestinian militant group.
However, any offensive in Rafah, located in the very south of the Gaza Strip on the Egyptian border, is considered highly problematic given the intense crowding there. Home to some 300,000 people before the war, now 1.3 million have crowded to the city, at times on the instructions of the Israeli military, to flee attacks in the rest of the Strip.
Leaders including UN Secretary General António Guterres, the US government and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock have all urged Israel against military action in the city.
