“NO SAFE PLACE”
Hundreds of thousands of people have been driven into Rafah, 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 told us to go to Rafah, so we went to Rafah.
“We can’t keep going and coming,” she added. “There is no safe place for us.”
Britain joined Australia, Canada and New Zealand Thursday in warning Israel not to launch a ground offensive in the city.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told Netanyahu in a telephone call that Britain was “deeply concerned about … the potentially devastating humanitarian impact of a military incursion into Rafah,” his office said.
In Cairo, efforts to secure a ceasefire entered a third day, with mediators from the United States, Qatar and Egypt trying to broker a deal to halt the fighting and see the release of the remaining hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
CIA director Bill Burns made an unannounced visit to Israel Wednesday for talks with Netanyahu and the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea.
Barnea had already held talks with Burns and Egyptian and Qatari representatives in Cairo on Tuesday before a Hamas delegation visited on Wednesday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he believed an agreement was still “possible”. “We’re very focused on it and I believe it’s possible,” he said on a visit to Albania.