The Israeli army will enter the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip despite international warnings, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said.
"There is international pressure to prevent us from entering Rafah and completing the work," Netanyahu told soldiers on Thursday, according to his office.
He said he has been rejecting this pressure and will continue to do so.
"We will enter Rafah," Netanyahu was quoted as saying. "We will complete the elimination of Hamas' battalions. We will restore security and we will bring total victory for the people of Israel and State of Israel."
In Rafah, a city on the border with Egypt, an estimated 1.5 million Palestinians are currently seeking refuge from the fighting in other areas of the Gaza Strip in cramped conditions. Aid organizations are warning of many more civilian casualties if Israel launches a full-scale military operation there.
Many countries are now criticising the actions of the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip in light of the dire humanitarian situation. From Israel's point of view, however, victory over Hamas is not possible without an operation in Rafah because it fears a resurgence of the terrorist organization after the war.
The war was triggered by a massacre in which militants from Hamas and other extremist groups murdered around 1,200 people and kidnapped 250 others in Israel on October 7.
