Jordan warns of 'massacre' in Rafah if Israeli attack not halted

Jordan has warned of a looming "massacre" of Palestinians by Israeli troops if the international community fails to prevent the expected Israeli military offensive against the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.

"Another massacre of the Palestinians is in the making. Israel is warning Palestinians to leave Rafah as it threatens an attack," Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi announced on Monday on X, formerly Twitter.

"All must act now to prevent it."

Failure to halt the planned offensive would leave "an indelible stain" on the international community, Safadi said.

"Too many massacres have been allowed. Enough," he wrote.

Israel's military has told the inhabitants of eastern Rafah to move to the town of al-Mawasi on the Mediterranean coast, a few kilometres to the north.

An Israeli military spokesman estimated that 100,000 people are affected by the order.

Israel contends that the military operation in Rafah would smash the remaining battalions of the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The announcement of the attack came after Hamas fired rockets at the Israeli border crossing Kerem Shalom on Sunday, which is not far from Rafah, killing four Israeli soldiers.

Kerem Shalom is the most important border crossing for the delivery of aid from Israel to the coastal strip. The army temporarily closed it to humanitarian shipments after the rocket attack

Israel is facing international criticism for its plan to attack, particularly because hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians who fled airstrikes and fighting elsewhere in the Gaza Strip are currently crowded into Rafah, located on the border with Egypt.