“Intensified airstrikes on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population are crammed into less than 20 per cent of the Gaza Strip, and statements by Israeli officials about a ground operation in Gaza have reportedly led to the movement of people out of Gaza’s southernmost governorate toward Deir al Balah,” said the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

On Friday, former Israeli prime minister and current war cabinet minister Benny Gantz stated Israel “won’t stop” until all hostages are returned, even if that means continuing hostilities during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

He added that Israel is preparing for a military incursion into Gaza and will act “in dialogue” with its partners, including Egypt, and “direct the population to protected areas.”

In a separate statement on Friday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told reporters that Israel had “no intention” of sending Palestinians into Egypt as part of an evacuation of Rafah, the focus of its next military offensive.

Gallant provided no details about a potential evacuation but claimed “we are thoroughly planning future operations in Rafah, which is a significant Hamas stronghold.”

Israel has driven most of Gaza’s population into Rafah with repeated evacuation orders that international human-rights experts have deemed to be attempted ethnic cleansing, designating “safe” corridors only to bomb them hours later, according to survivors.

Over 85% of the territory’s inhabitants have been displaced since Israel declared war four months ago, many more than once, and hundreds of thousands live in famine conditions, according to the UN.

Hostilities between Hamas and Israel have so far claimed the lives of around 1,200 Israelis and nearly 29,000 Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that peace in the region can only be achieved after the armed group is destroyed and Palestinian society is “deradicalized”. He has also pushed back against a potential peace deal that would involve the “unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state”.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has blamed Israel for a lack of progress in achieving a ceasefire deal in Gaza.

Haniyeh stated on Saturday that Hamas would not “accept anything less than a complete cessation of the aggression, withdrawal of the occupation army from Gaza and lifting of the unjust siege”.

“The Court notes that the most recent developments in the Gaza Strip, and in Rafah in particular, ‘would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences’, as stated by the United Nations Secretary-General,” the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said in a statement on Friday.

It added the situation in Rafah “demands immediate and effective implementation of the provisional measures indicated by the Court in its Order of 26 January 2024”, when it ordered Israel to take all steps within its power to ensure genocidal acts are not being committed in its war on Gaza.

However, the court “does not demand the indication of additional provisional measures”, its statement read.

South Africa said on Tuesday that it had lodged an “urgent request” with the ICJ to consider whether Israel’s military operations targeting Rafah breach provisional orders the court handed down last month in a case alleging genocide.

Israel on Thursday called on the court to reject the request, stating: “South Africa’s unjustifiable claims make clear that its request is not driven by any change in circumstances, nor does it have any basis in fact or law.”

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed nearly 29,000 Palestinians across the Strip, according to health authorities. The relentless bombardment since October 7 has also displaced most of the population.

About 1.4 million people are now sheltering in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, which Israel had initially designated a “safe zone” for civilians.

But Israel has been threatening to launch a ground invasion there, a move that the UN and international governments – including Israel’s Western allies – have warned against.

South Africa’s urgent request to the court mentioned the hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in Rafah, many of them fleeing “pursuant to Israeli military evacuation orders, from homes and areas that have largely been destroyed by Israel”. They could now be threatened directly, it said.

Israel’s unprecedented planned military offensive against Rafah would result in further large-scale killing, harm and destruction “in serious and irreparable breach” of the Genocide Convention and of the ICJ’s ruling at the end of January, the request added.

In its statement on Friday, the ICJ said that Israel “remains bound to fully comply with its obligations under the Genocide Convention and with the said Order, including by ensuring the safety and security of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip”.

Israel strongly denies committing genocide in Gaza. However, the ICJ last month ruled that it had jurisdiction to hear South Africa’s case against Israel, in which the latter is accused of breaching the Genocide Convention.

The court ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza, but the panel of judges stopped short of ordering an end to the military offensive that has laid waste to the Palestinian enclave.