Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer has said Israel would hear out US ideas for Rafah, however, the city would be taken whether or not an agreement was reached on the evacuation of civilians, Al Jazeera reports.

While speaking to the podcast Call Me Back, the senior Israeli official said Israel will take control of Rafah even if it causes a rift with the US, describing the southern Gaza City where more than one million displaced Palestinians are sheltering as a Hamas bastion harbouring a quarter of the group’s fighters.