Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the army to prepare to “evacuate” hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza’s Rafah, his office said, after Washington warned it would not support any ground assault on the city.

According to AFP, Netanyahu told military and security officials to “submit to the cabinet a combined plan for evacuating the population and destroying the battalions” of Palestinian group Hamas holed up in Rafah, a statement from his office said.

The United States is Israel’s main international backer, providing it with billions of dollars in military aid.

But the US State Department said it does not support a ground offensive in Rafah, warning that, if not properly planned, such an operation risked “disaster”.