Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said "additional forces will enter" the Rafah area and "this activity will intensify".

"Hundreds of targets have already been struck and our forces are manoeuvring in the area," Gallant said following a troop visit on Wednesday.

Israel's top ally the United States has joined other major powers in appealing for it to hold back from a full ground offensive in Rafah, the last city in Gaza so far spared from Israel's brutal war.

Many have fled to the coastal area of Al-Mawasi that Israel has declared a "humanitarian zone", and satellite images show a vast new tent city has sprung up near the main southern city of Khan Younis.

Many of those fleeing Rafah are "exhausted, they are scared, they don't have resources", said Javed Ali, head of emergency response in Gaza for International Medical Corps.

Ali, who works at a field hospital in Al-Mawasi and is an aid veteran of multiple war zones, said the situation in Gaza was "far more catastrophic" than anything he had seen before.

"The immense number of trauma cases, the lack of resources, the interrupted supply chain... It's something that I've never seen."

Friendly fire kills 5 troops
 

The Israeli army said that five of its soldiers were killed in Jabalia refugee camp on Wednesday when two Israeli tanks mistakenly shelled the building they were in.

"Five soldiers of the 202nd Paratrooper Battalion were killed last night in a mass casualty incident as a result of fire by our forces," the military said, adding that seven troops were wounded.

AFP reporters, witnesses and medics said Israeli warplanes again targeted areas across Gaza overnight, including in Gaza City and its southern Zeitun area, Jabalia and the Nuseirat refugee camp.

Washington has repeatedly urged its ally to take greater steps to protect civilians -- and to make a post-war plan for Gaza to avoid being mired in the Palestinian territory.

Netanyahu insisted Wednesday that any planning for post-war Gaza was "empty talk" until Hamas is defeated.

In signs of a growing rift inside the war cabinet, Gallant called on Netanyahu to "declare that Israel will not establish civilian control over the Gaza Strip".

"The 'day after Hamas' will only be achieved with Palestinian entities taking control of Gaza, accompanied by international actors, establishing a governing alternative to Hamas rule," Gallant said.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh insisted that "the Hamas movement is here to stay".

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas told an Arab League meeting in Bahrain that Hamas's "unilateral decision" to launch the October 7 attack had "provided Israel with more pretexts and justifications to attack the Gaza Strip".

In a statement issued after the meeting, the 22-member bloc called for UN peacekeepers to be deployed in the occupied Palestinian territories until a two-state solution has been implemented.

US says Gaza pier ready
 

Israel's devastating war on Gaza has killed at least 35,272 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.

An Israeli siege on Gaza has brought dire shortages of food as well as clean water, medicines and fuel for its 2.4 million people. The threat of famine hangs over parts of the war-ravaged territory.

The arrival of occasional aid convoys has slowed to a trickle since Israeli forces took control last week of the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing.

The US military said Thursday it has completed a temporary pier on Gaza's coast, part of a project to ship in relief supplies from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

UN agencies have warned, however, that planned maritime aid corridor, and ongoing airdrops from planes, cannot replace far more efficient truck deliveries, urging Israel to open all land crossings into Gaza.

In a case before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, South Africa accused Israel on Thursday of stepping up its "genocide" in Gaza, urging the court to order a halt to Israel's assault on Rafah.

"As the primary humanitarian hub for humanitarian assistance in Gaza, if Rafah falls, so too does Gaza," said South Africa in its submission.

"In attacking Rafah, Israel is attacking the 'last refuge' in Gaza, and the only remaining area of the Strip which has not yet been substantially destroyed by Israel," the document added.

Israel, which is due to respond on Friday, has failed to abide by any of the provisional orders issued by the ICJ which include avoiding harm to civilians and allowing unfettered aid access for Gaza.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online