Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled the Southern Gaza strip Sunday ahead of long anticipated military operations by the Israeli Defense Forces in the city of Rafah, and amidst assertions by the top U.S. diplomat that the Israeli government may have gone too far in its war against Hamas.

Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas terrorists attack has not been “consistent” with international law, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and any ground invasion of the southern Gaza Strip that doesn’t coincide with a plan to protect civilians will be conducted without full U.S. support, he said Sunday.

Blinken, freshly back from his seventh trip to the region since the start of the war between Israel and the terrorist group, spoke just as the Israeli Defense Forces were warning civilians sheltered in the southern Palestinian city to flee ahead of a planned military ground offensive.

Human rights groups warn there are millions of displaced Palestinians currently sheltering in and around Rafah — more than half the Gaza Strip’s total population — stuck between the intractable Egyptian government’s refusal to accept refugees and advancing IDF forces.

“Most of the population from Gaza, displaced from the north, and from Central Gaza, has gone to Rafah, there are about 1.4 million people there. And we said to Israel that we cannot, will not support an operation in Rafah, a major military operation, in the absence of a credible plan to protect civilians,” Blinken said Sunday on CBS.

The Biden Administration has been demanding such a plan from Israel’s government since the war against Hamas was launched last fall. Despite never producing one, the IDF has continued its operations with the full-throated blessing of the White House.

That was the case until last Friday, when news broke President Joe Biden had told his Israeli counterparts that, absent an Israeli plan to protect Palestinian civilians, a Rafah invasion would be met with a halt in the transfer of several thousand 500-pound and 2,000-pound munitions.

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers. I made it clear that if they go into Rafah…I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah – to deal with the cities,” Biden said Friday.

Blinken reiterated that point over the weekend, saying that an attack on Rafah would not have the full support of available U.S. military assets.

“There’s certain systems that we’re not going to be supporting and supplying for that operation. But at present, the only thing that we’ve delayed and are holding back are these high payload bombs, because we’re in an ongoing conversation with Israel, given the impact that those weapons can have, when they’re used in densely populated areas, including an area like Rafah,” Blinken said.

Israel’s execution of the war thus far has raised concerns globally and among U.S. leadership, with Blinken openly saying that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has crossed the line of what’s acceptable.

“When it comes to the use of weapons, concerns about incidents where given the totality of the damage that’s been done to children, women, men, it was reasonable to assess that, in certain instances, Israel acted in ways that are not consistent with international humanitarian law,” Blinken said.

Hamas launched a ground attack of southern Israel on October 7 under the cover of a prolonged rocket barrage. Terrorists murdered over 1,200 people before the IDF was able to drive them back into the Gaza Strip, but not before they had kidnapped hundreds and spirited them into Hamas controlled territory. Hundreds of hostages have since been freed, but more than 100 are still missing and it’s feared dozens have died.

According to the Hamas run Gaza Health Ministry, Israel’s military response has killed approximately 35,000 people, most of whom they say are women and children, though those numbers cannot be independently verified. Millions of Palestinians have been displaced as a result of the war, according to Amnesty International.

Attempts to broker a ceasefire have failed, despite the intervention of the international community.

Blinken stressed the U.S. has yet to draw any definitive conclusions regarding any alleged violation of international law by the IDF or Netanyahu’s government, while also acknowledging the situation on the ground in Gaza is “an extraordinarily complex military environment,” with combatants hiding among the civilian population.

“You have an enemy, Hamas, that committed the most atrocious terrorist attacks on Israel, October 7, and then retreats to Gaza, hides behind and underneath civilians, in hospitals, schools, mosques, apartment buildings,” he said.

According to the Associated Press the IDF pushed further into Rafah on Sunday as more than 300,000 Palestinians fled ahead of more fighting.

Herald wire services contributed.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)