The US is asking Israel to take greater care to protect civilians and limit damage to infrastructure if it launches an offensive in southern Gaza to avoid further displacements that would overwhelm humanitarian efforts, senior US officials said, Reuters reports.

As Israel begins to look towards south Gaza to continue battling Hamas after a pause in fighting to release hostages, US officials said they have been talking to the Israelis about taking greater care in the south, where there were now about 2 million people.

The message has been delivered from US President Joe Biden, the officials told reporters in a conference call.

“We have reinforced this in very clear language with the government of Israel — very important that the conduct of the Israeli campaign when it moves to the south must be done in a way that is to a maximum extent not designed to produce significant further displacement of persons,” one official said.

“You cannot have the sort of scale of displacement that took place in the north, replicated in the south. It will be beyond disruptive, it will be beyond the capacity of any humanitarian support network,” the official said, adding “It can’t happen.”