At least 28 killed in Israeli attack on Rafah after Netanyahu orders evacuation

Twenty eight Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on Rafah on Saturday morning — just hours after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his army to prepare a dual plan to evacuate and attack the region.

Benjamin Netanyahu has not shared details or a timeline, but theannouncement has set off widespread panic in the area home to more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people.

Early on Saturday morning, Israel launched three airstrikes on homes on the border city, killing 28 people, according to a health official and Associated Press journalists stationed at hospitals.

Each strike killed multiple members of three families, including a total of 10 children, the youngest three months old.

In Khan Younis, the focus of the current ground combat, Israeli forces opened fire at Nasser Hospital, the area's largest, killing at least one person and wounding several, said Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry.

Twenty eight Palestinians have reportedly died in the air strikes on Saturday morning

He said medical staff are no longer able to move between the facility’s buildings because of the intense fire. He said 300 medical personnel, 450 patients and 10,000 displaced people are sheltering in the hospital.

On Friday, Mr Netanyahu said it was “impossible” to achieve the goals of the war without going into the southern border city and eliminating what he claimed was the last stronghold of Hamas, who launched a bloody attack inside Israel on 7 October.

In a statement he said a “massive operation” was needed and ordered the military and security establishment “to submit to the cabinet a combined plan for evacuating the population and destroying the battalions”.

President Joe Biden said this week