The US President, Joe Biden, has warned Israel's Prime Minister in a phone call that no military operation should go ahead in Rafeh in Southern Gaza unless there's a plan to ensure the safety of the population. Mr. Biden has become the latest leader to voice his concern about Israel's proposal to invade the city. Rafeh, on the border with Egypt, has become the last refuge for Palestinians, fleeing the bombardment elsewhere in Gaza, which has been going on since the Hamas attacks of October the seventh. Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by the UK. Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that an evacuation plan for the city is being prepared. With the latest, Jeremy Bowen reports from Jerusalem.

At the Southern end of Gaza, this is the heavily guarded border fence with Egypt. For Palestinian refugees, there is no further to go. Leila Abu Mustapha fled here with her two handicapped daughters. Getting on for one and a half million Palestinian civilians have been forced into Southern Gaza, living in dreadful conditions. Now, Israel says it will attack this area, claiming it will find a safe haven for civilians in one of the most dangerous places for them on Earth. Every day, Leila says, We've been on the run. I can't carry my daughters. We are not moving again. In Israel, which feels a world away, today, the Prime Minister's allies are backing his demand for total victory.

History is judging us. If we don't eliminate Hamas, if Hamas, our terrorist entity, continues controlling a territory beside Israel, whether in the north or in the south, then we haven't done our morale job towards our population.

At Israel's Parliament in Jerusalem, strains of war are showing. An MP who supported the genocide case against Israel has been accused of treason and faces expulsion.

Defending oneself doesn't give one the right to kill other people, especially innocent civilians. It's very clear. Everybody, myself and my comrade, We were, of course, totally against the terrible carnage that Hamas carried out. But we said from the beginning that the solution is not retaliation, is It's not revenge, and it's not war. So what is it? Only a political solution.

And the strain of war here in Northern Gaza. No police, no law and order, food convoys attacked. It's even worse in the south. With with looters threatening to paralyze the entire aid operation.

We've seen it growing over the last weeks, and I think as the situation, people become more desperate as opportunities appear. We see the attacks on these trucks, the attacks on vehicles, and now the attacks on drivers. And so it's become a very lawless area for people then to operate. And for us to operate in that, it's impossible, actually.

We can't get into Gaza's chaotic, desperate, tense cities to check Israel's claims that Hamas is stealing the food. The UN says it's young men, not in uniform, mostly unarmed. President Biden has told Israel, once again, it must not attack here in Raqqa unless it keeps civilians safe. One question, is, is Israel listening? Jeremy Bowen, BBC News, Jerusalem.