Israel going ahead with Rafah operation as hostage talks continue, Netanyahu says

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that his war cabinet approved continuing an operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah in order to pressure Hamas to release Israeli hostages and achieve the country's other war goals.

"The war cabinet unanimously decided that Israel continue the operation in Rafah to exert military pressure on Hamas in order to advance the release of our hostages and the other goals of the war," Netanyahu's office said in a statement.

"In parallel, even though the Hamas proposal is far from Israel's necessary demands, Israel will send a working delegation to the mediators in order to exhaust the possibility of reaching an agreement under conditions acceptable to Israel," it said.

Netanyahu's remarks came after Hamas said it had accepted a ceasefire proposal from mediators. The Israeli military said all proposals that would release hostages held in Gaza would be considered, while for now its operations were continuing in parallel.

Earlier on Monday, Israel ordered the evacuation of parts of Rafah, the city on the Egyptian border that has served as the last sanctuary for around half of Gaza's 2.3 million residents.

An Israeli strike on a house in Rafah killed five Palestinians, including a woman and a girl, medics said.

Israel believes that a significant number of Hamas fighters, along with potentially dozens of hostages, are in Rafah and has said that victory requires taking the key city.

Israel's closest ally, the United States, has called on it not to assault Rafah, saying it must not do so without a full plan in place to protect civilians there, which has yet to be presented.

A separate U.S. official said that Washington is concerned about Israel's latest strikes against Rafah but does not believe they represent a major military operation.

Israel said on Monday it was conducting limited operations on the eastern part of Rafah. Palestinian residents said there were massive air strikes.

"They have been firing since last night, and today after the evacuation orders, the bombardment became more intense because they want to frighten us to leave," Jaber Abu Nazly, a 40-year-old father of two, told Reuters via a chat app.

"Others are wondering whether there is any place safe in the whole of Gaza," he said.

Instructed by Arabic text messages, phone calls and flyers to move to what the Israeli military called an "expanded humanitarian zone" about 20 kilometres away, some Palestinian families began trundling away in chilly spring rain.

Some piled children and possessions onto donkey carts, while others left by pickup truck or on foot through muddy streets.