Israel vows to 'intensify' operations in Rafah

Israel vowed on Thursday to "intensify" its ground offensive in Rafah, in defiance of global warnings over the fate of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians sheltering in Gaza's far-southern city.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said "additional forces will enter" the Rafah area and "this activity will intensify".

"Hundreds of targets have already been struck and our forces are manoeuvring in the area," Gallant said following a troop visit on Wednesday.

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Israel's top ally, the United States, has joined other major powers in appealing for it to hold back from a full ground offensive against Hamas in Rafah, the last city in Gaza so far spared heavy urban fighting.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has countered that a ground assault on Rafah is vital to the army's mission of destroying Hamas to prevent any repetition of the October 7 attack that triggered the war.

Speaking on Wednesday, the premier said nearly half a million Palestinian civilians had already been evacuated from Rafah and argued that a much-feared humanitarian disaster had not materialised.

Many have fled to the coastal area of Al Mawasi that Israel has declared a "humanitarian zone", and satellite images show a vast new tent city has sprung up near the main southern city of Khan Younis.

Many of those fleeing Rafah are "exhausted, they are scared, they don't have resources", said Javed Ali, head of emergency response in Gaza for International Medical Corps.

Ali, who works at a field hospital in Al Mawasi and is an aid veteran of multiple war zones, said the situation in Gaza was "far more catastrophic" than anything he had seen before.

"The immense number of trauma cases, the lack of resources, the interrupted supply chain... It's something that I've never seen."

More than seven months into the conflict, Israeli forces were also fighting Palestinian militants in new flashpoints in northern and central Gaza.

Heavy battles rocked the Jabalia refugee camp where, military spokesman Nadav Shoshani said, there had been "intelligence indicating that Hamas was trying to reassemble its forces".

The army said that five of its soldiers were killed in Jabalia on Wednesday when two Israeli tanks mistakenly shelled the building they were in.

"Five soldiers of the 202nd Paratrooper Battalion were killed last night in a mass casualty incident as a result of fire by our forces," the military said, adding that seven troops were wounded.

AFP reporters, witnesses and medics said Israeli warplanes again targeted areas across Gaza overnight, including in Gaza City and its southern Zeitun area, Jabalia and the Nuseirat refugee camp.

Washington has repeatedly urged its ally to take greater steps to protect civilians -- and to make a post-war plan for Gaza to avoid being mired in a long counterinsurgency campaign.

Netanyahu insisted on Wednesday that any planning for post-war Gaza was "empty talk" until Hamas is defeated.

In signs of a growing rift inside the war cabinet, Gallant called on Netanyahu to "declare that Israel will not establish civilian control over the Gaza Strip".