Fears over ground assault into Rafah's "pressure cooker of despair"; UNICEF says nearly all Gaza's children need mental health support.

Israel prepares for Rafah assault

There are growing fears of an Israeli ground assault into Rafah, Gaza's southern city on the border with Egypt which is currently a temporary home for more than half of the enclave's 2.3 million residents. On Friday, Israeli forces shelled positions around its outskirts. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says troops will switch focus to Rafah, one of the few remaining areas they have yet to enter, along with Deir al-Balah just north of Khan Younis. 

"We are achieving our missions in Khan Younis, and we will also reach Rafah and eliminate terror elements that threaten us," Gallant said in a statement. 

Tens of thousands more refugees have arrived in Rafah in recent days, since Israeli forces launched one of the biggest assaults of the war last week to capture Khan Younis, just north of Rafah. 

"We will be left with two choices: stay and die or climb the walls into Egypt," said Emad, a businessman and father-of-six, on an impending ground assault. "Most of Gaza's population are in Rafah. If the tanks storm in, it will be a massacre like never before during this war." 

"Pressure cooker of despair"

The United Nations humanitarian office has described conditions in Rafah as a "pressure cooker of despair" as more people continue to flood into the city from war-torn Khan Younis. 

"I want to emphasize our deep concern about the escalation of hostilities in Khan Younis, which has resulted in an increase in the number of internally displaced people seeking refuge in Rafah in recent days," said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "We fear for what comes next."

The agency also expressed concern over heavy fighting around hospitals in Khan Younis, saying aid agencies were struggling to respond. 

Child anxiety, sleep problems, loss of appetite

Meanwhile, the UN's Children's Fund says nearly all of Gaza's children are in need of mental health support. UNICEF released estimates on Friday which showed that around 17,000 children in Gaza were unaccompanied due to being orphaned or separated from their families. The agency added that nearly the entire juvenile population of the enclave had suffered mental health deterioration because of the conflict which has raged since October 7. 

"They present symptoms like extremely high levels of persistent anxiety, loss of appetite. They can't sleep, they have emotional outbursts or they panic every time they hear a bombing," said Jonathan Crickx, UNICEF'S chief of communication for the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

"Before this war, UNICEF was considering already that 500,000 children were already in need of mental health and psychosocial support in Gaza. Today, we estimate that almost all children are in need of that support, and that's more than 1 million children."

Negotiators await Hamas truce plan response

Hopes of an imminent ceasefire have been rolled back after Hamas denied claims by Qatari mediators that it reacted positively to the latest proposals. The media adviser to the head of group's political bureau says details of the plan were received, but that no response was issued. 

"We say that the current stage of negotiation is zero and at the same time we cannot say that we have reached an agreement," Taher al-Nono said.

The denial comes after Qatar's foreign ministry spokesperson said the proposal for a ceasefire and release of hostages had been approved by the Israelis and that Hamas had given an "initial positive confirmation". Majed al-Ansari said mediators were "optimistic" over a new pause in the fighting. Those comments were reported by Arabic-language media, prompting brief celebratory gunfire in Gaza on Thursday. 

An outline for an extended truce was drafted last week by Israeli and U.S. spy chiefs and passed on to Hamas by Egypt and Qatar. 

Israeli missile kills Iranian adviser

Away from Gaza, an Iranian Revolutionary Guards adviser in Damascus was killed by an Israeli missile strike on Friday, which targeted a southern district of the Syrian capital, according to Iranian media. Earlier, Syria's state news agency SANA, citing a Syrian military source, said the country's military had downed a number of Israeli missiles launched from the Golan Heights, targeting southern Damascus. 

Iranian news sites identified the dead man as Saeid Alidadi but did not give his rank. Meanwhile Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi told a crowd on Friday that his country would not start a war in the region but would "respond strongly" to anyone who tried to bully it.