At least 44 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Rafah on Saturday.
Three airstrikes on homes in the Rafah area killed 44 people, as each strike killed multiple members of three families, including a total of 10 children, the youngest three months old, AP reported.
Earlier, Israel had said its military is preparing for launching ground assault on Hamas in Gaza’s Rafah, where already thousands of displaced Palestinians are trapped in desperate conditions.
Over a million people have been driven southwards by four months of Israeli bombing of Gaza are packed into Rafah and surrounding areas on the coastal enclave's border with Egypt, which has reinforced the frontier, fearing an exodus.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the military had been told to come up with a plan to evacuate civilians. However, the aid agencies have warned that a military offensive in such a densely populated area could end up killing large numbers of innocent people.
"There is a sense of growing anxiety, growing panic in Rafah because basically people have no idea where to go," the head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Earlier, US President Joe Biden had said Israel's response to the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas militants was "over the top" and Washington said it would not support any military operation mounted in Rafah without due consideration for civilians.
Netanyahu's office said four Hamas battalions were in Rafah and Israel could not achieve its goal of eliminating the Islamist militants while they remained there.
Civilians should be evacuated from the combat zone, it said.
"Therefore, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) and the security establishment to submit to the Cabinet a combined plan for evacuating the population and destroying the battalions," he was quoted as saying.
The statement, issued two days after Netanyahu rejected a Hamas ceasefire proposal, opens new tab that also envisaged the release of hostages held by the Palestinian militant group, gave no further details.
Tal Heinrich, a spokesman for Netanyahu, has reportedly said "if Israel's hands are tied by the international community, or if we take the pressure for Hamas actions" it would be "an open invitation for more terrorism worldwide."
The United Nations said Palestinian civilians in Rafah, opens new tab needed to be protected, but there should not be any forced mass displacement, which it said went against international law.
"We're extremely worried about the fate of civilians in Rafah," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric was quoted as saying.
