The Israeli premier reiterated that civilians would be evacuated from Rafah before any ground attack, without detailing where they would go in the largely devastated coastal strip, AFP reports.

“Our goal in eliminating the remaining terrorist battalions in Rafah goes hand-in-hand with enabling the civilian population to leave Rafah,” he said during a visit by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

“It’s not something that we will do while keeping the population locked in place.”

Scholz, like others before him, raised the question: “Where should they go?”

Speaking to reporters later, Scholz said that if a Rafah offensive resulted in “a large number of casualties”, this “would make any peaceful development in the region very difficult”.