A ground invasion on Rafah is planned, "with or without" an agreement with Hamas, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Xinhua news agency said that Netanyahu made the announcement during a meeting with the families of the prisoners on Tuesday that Israel had started the process of evacuating Palestinian inhabitants from Rafah.
"We will enter Rafah and destroy Hamas forces there, whether or not a negotiated solution was reached, in order to achieve total victory," he reiterated.
The city of Rafah is reported to be one of the biggest bases of the Palestinian militant Islamic movement, Hamas, in the Palestinian territory.
In the southern part of Gaza, Rafah reportedly hosts about 1.2 million Palestinian refugees.
He was speaking against the backdrop of ongoing negotiations between Hamas and the Israelis, brokered by Egypt, to end the nearly seven-month-long conflict in Gaza.
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