Pressure mounts on Israel for Gaza ceasefire

Israel faced growing international pressure on Tuesday to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas, as it planned an incursion into the southern Gaza city Rafah where more than a million Palestinians are trapped.

CIA Director William Burns was due in Cairo on Tuesday for a new round of talks on a Qatari-mediated ceasefire that would temporarily halt fighting in exchange for Hamas freeing hostages.

His planned visit comes after Washington and the United Nations warned Israel against carrying out a ground offensive into Rafah without a plan to protect civilians, who say they have nowhere left to go.

"Wherever we go there's bombing, martyrs and wounded," said Iman Dergham, a displaced Palestinian woman.

On a visit to the White House on Monday, Jordan's King Abdullah II pushed for a full ceasefire to end the four-month-old war.

"We cannot afford an Israeli attack on Rafah. It is certain to produce another humanitarian catastrophe," said the monarch whose country hosts a large number of Palestinian refugees.

"We cannot stand by and let this continue. We need a lasting ceasefire now. This war must end."

Joe Biden and Jordan's King Abdullah attend a press conference at the White House in Washington. Reuters

After rejecting Hamas's terms for a truce last week, Israel conducted a predawn raid in Rafah on Monday that freed two hostages and killed around 100 people.

Netanyahu hailed the overnight operation freeing Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Luis Har, 70, as "perfect", while the Palestinian foreign ministry said the deaths of dozens of Gazans amounted to a "massacre".

The rare rescue mission under heavy air strikes came hours after Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden, who reiterated his opposition to a major assault on Rafah.

But Netanyahu has defied pressure from key ally and military backer Washington, insisting that "complete victory" cannot be achieved until the elimination of the Hamas’ last battalions in Rafah.

While meeting with the units that freed the two hostages, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday said there would be "more operations" soon and pledged to see "Gaza destroyed".

"In my opinion, the day is not far."

No safe place

Rafah has become a last refuge for over half of Gaza's population, who are pressed up against the Egypt border in makeshift encampments where they face outbreaks of hepatitis and diarrhoea, and a scarcity of food and water.

Netanyahu has said Israel would provide "safe passage" to civilians trying to leave, but foreign governments and aid groups -- as well as Gazans -- wondered where they could go.

"As it is, there is no place that is currently safe in Gaza," said United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.

Members of a Palestinian family ride in the back of a truck with belongings as they flee Rafah on Monday. AFP

When asked about an evacuation mission, he said the UN would "not be party to forced displacement of people".

The UN's human rights chief Volker Turk warned that "an extremely high number of civilians" would likely be killed or injured in a full Israeli incursion into Rafah, which could also spell the end of the "meager" humanitarian aid entering Gaza.

"It's almost famine here, we're almost out of flour in the north region," said a man in northern Gaza's Beit Lahia. "We can't even find food and drinks for the children."

'Time is running out'

Israel's operation to free the two hostages left Rafah with bomb craters and piles of rubble.

The United States said it was deeply concerned by the reports that around 100 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed in the early Monday raid.

The State Department also called for Israel to investigate the "heartbreaking" death of six-year-old Gazan Hind Rajab.

Her body was recovered on Saturday along with two relatives and two Red Crescent workers who went to find her after her family's car came under fire while trying to flee an Israeli advance on Gaza City.

Palestinians look through a house damaged on Tuesday. Reuters

"I will question before God on Judgment Day those who heard my daughter's cries for help and did not save her," Hind's mother Wissam Hamada told the media.

At least 28,340 people, mostly women and children, have died in Israel's relentless bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The war began after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on October 7 that killed about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Palestinian group Hamas also seized about 250 foreign and Israeli captives from southern Israel, around 130 of whom Israel says are still held in Gaza including 29 who are presumed dead.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group warned that "time is running out for the remaining hostages", urging the Israeli government to "exhaust every option on the table to release them".

Agence France-Presse