Civilians in Gaza 'trapped': 'Nowhere to go, houses destroyed, lives turned into pieces'

Israel has vowed to press on with a "powerful" operation in war-torn Gaza's Rafah, even as calls mounted for it to hold off sending troops into the territory's overcrowded far-southern city. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week ordered the Israeli army to prepare for an incursion into Rafah, where more than one million displaced Palestinians are trapped. Netanyahu has come under growing pressure to refrain from launching a large-scale ground assault on Rafah, but has insisted Hamas's battalions must be eliminated in the city. Meanwhile the Red Cross has warned that Israel's looming military push into the southern Gaza city of Rafah could have a dire impact, and has demanded that "the fundamental principle of humanity" be upheld. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) cautioned that increased and sustained hostilities in Rafah, where over 1.4 million Palestinians are trapped, posed a "disastrous risk to civilian lives and infrastructure". Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers have been at war for four months and the threat of a Rafah ground operation has triggered global alarm over the potential for mass civilian casualties. For in-depth analysis and a deeper perspective on the Israel-Hamas war and the harrowing plight of civilians in war-torn Gaza, FRANCE 24's Mark Owen is joined by Aurélie Godard, Head of Medical Activities in Gaza for Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).