A battle is raging on the outskirts of Rafah with Israeli forces closing into the city. Israel has threatened a major assault on Rafah to defeat four of Hamas’s six remaining battalions holed up there, but more than a million people are sheltering in the city, prompting warnings from the United Nations of a humanitarian catastrophe. Israeli forces seized the main border crossing between Gaza and Egypt in Rafah, cutting off a vital route for aid into the enclave, where malnutrition is widespread. Israel’s military said it was conducting a limited operation in Rafah to kill terrorists and dismantle infrastructure used by Hamas. It told civilians to go to an 'expanded humanitarian zone' near Khan Younis, north of Rafah.

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