After more than four months of a war that has flattened vast swathes of Gaza, displaced most of the territory's population, and pushed people to the brink of starvation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted it must press ahead into Rafah for "complete victory."
Hundreds of thousands of people have been driven into Gaza's southernmost city, seeking shelter in a sprawling, makeshift encampment near the Egyptian border.
"We were displaced from Gaza City to the south," said Ahlam Abu Assi. "Then they instructed us to go to Rafah, so we went to Rafah.
"We can't keep going and coming," she said. "There is no safe place for us."
Netanyahu vowed to crush Hamas in response to the Palestinian group's October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
At least 28,576 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel's assault on the Palestinian territory, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
"We will fight until complete victory, and this includes a powerful action in Rafah after we allow the civilian population to leave the battle zones," Netanyahu said in a statement on his official Telegram account.
Australia, Canada, and New Zealand were the latest to warn Israel that launching a ground offensive in Rafah would be "devastating" for the 1.5 million Palestinians trapped there.