Palestinians move belongings at the site of an Israeli attack on a house in Rafah, southern Gaza

Any Israeli ground offensive on the Gaza border in Rafah would “blow up” hostage exchange talks, Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV quoted a senior Hamas leader as saying on Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it had ordered the military to develop a plan to evacuate Rafah and destroy four Hamas camps it said were deployed there.

Most of the displaced have sought refuge in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, but after ceasefire talks came to nothing, Netanyahu said this week that Israeli forces would continue fighting until “total victory.”

Before previous attacks on Gaza City, the Israeli military had ordered civilians to flee south, but now there is no obvious place to go and aid agencies say many are likely to die.

The conflict in Gaza began on October 7. According to Israeli statistics, Hamas gunmen broke into border defense facilities and attacked Israeli towns, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 hostages back to Gaza.

Israel responded with a massive bombing and ground offensive that killed more than 28,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to medical authorities in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

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