Israel’s military said early Monday that it had conducted a “wave of attacks” on Rafah, the city in Gaza to which more than a million displaced Palestinians have fled.
At about 3 a.m. local time, the military said on Telegram that its strikes on “quality targets” were over. Images and videos on social media, which could not immediately be verified, showed injured people and damage to buildings. News outlets reported deadly attacks on two mosques in Rafah and said people were being taken to Kuwait Hospital in the city.
Israel’s most important allies, including the United States and Britain, have warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to go ahead with a plan to send troops into Rafah. The United Nations has said that the Palestinians there are running low on food, clean water and medicine, and that a ground assault would risk exacerbating a catastrophe that is already unfolding.
Mr. Netanyahu promised on Sunday to offer Palestinians “safe passage” to northern areas of Gaza before the planned ground invasion, though he offered no details. He said that Israel had no choice but to finish its assault on Hamas, which it says is hiding among civilians in Rafah. The U.N. and aid groups have said that the people in Rafah, many of whom have already have fled their homes at least once to escape Israeli attacks since the start of the war, have nowhere else to go.
Yan Zhuang contributed reporting.