Israel’s military onslaught against Rafah, where “more than 1.5 million civilians are crowded into a narrow sliver of land”, risks turning the former refuge for civilians “into graveyard”, said Avril Benoit, the executive director of Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF.

Benoit said in a post on social media that “a further military escalation in Rafah would be a direct attack on a trapped population”, and Israel must immediately halt it plans.

A military escalation in Rafah “would crush an already fragile humanitarian response at a time when health and humanitarian needs are soaring”, Benoit said.

“For seven months, we have witnessed the indiscriminate killing of civilians, attacks on aid workers – including our own staff – the destruction of medical facilities, and the obstruction of lifesaving assistance,” the MSF chief said in a statement.

“We cannot imagine what a further escalation of this conflict would mean for people who have already suffered so much in this war without rules”.