President Joe Biden and Jordanian King urgeIsrael not to carry out Rafah offensive - BBC...

US President Joe Biden has said civilians who are "packed" into Rafah in the Gaza Strip are "exposed and vulnerable" and must be protected.

Israel must make "credible" efforts to protect the more than one million Palestinians sheltering in the southern Gazan city, he said.

Rafah has come under heavy Israeli air strikes in recent days, with a number of casualties reported.

More than half of the Gaza Strip's population of 2.3 million is now crammed into the city on the border with Egypt, which was home to only 250,000 people before the war between Israel and Hamas erupted in October.

On Sunday, Israel's military said two male Israeli-Argentine hostages had been rescued during a raid in Rafah.

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