Live updates | Israel conducts deadly Gaza strikes after Biden calls approach to war ‘over the top’

Israeli airstrikes struck the central Gaza Strip and the southern city of Rafah on the border with Egypt overnight into Friday, causing nearly two dozen fatalities including women and children, witnesses and hospital officials said.

The overnight airstrikes came hours after U.S. President Joe Biden said Thursday that he considers Israel’s conduct in the war to be “over the top.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he has ordered the military to prepare a plan to evacuate the population of Rafah before an expected Israeli invasion of the southern Gaza town.

More than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has been driven by Israel’s military offensive toward the border with Egypt. Unable to leave the tiny Palestinian territory, many are living in makeshift tent camps or overflowing U.N.-run shelters.

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