GAZA: Israel on Friday approved a potential assault on the Gaza city of Rafah while also keeping ceasefire hopes alive with plans to send another delegation to Qatar for talks on a possible hostage deal with Palestinian fighter group Hamas, Reuters reports.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had ok’d a plan to attack the city on the southern edge of the shattered Palestinian enclave where more than half of its 2.3 million residents are sheltering after five months of fighting.

Global allies and critics have urged Netanyahu to hold off attacking Rafah, fearing mass civilian casualties. But Israel says it is one of the last strongholds of Hamas whom it has pledged to eliminate and that residents will be evacuated.

In Washington, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the US had not seen the Rafah plan, but would like to. He told a regular briefing a Hamas ceasefire-for-hostages proposal was within the bounds of what was possible and expressed cautious optimism about it.

Senior figures from Hamas and Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels held a rare meeting to discuss coordinating their actions against Israel, AFP reports.

Citing unnamed sources from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the news agency said leaders from the two Palestinian groups, as well as the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, held an “important meeting” with representatives from the Houthis last week.

The groups discussed “mechanisms to coordinate their actions of resistance” for the “next stage” of the conflict in Gaza, the sources were quoted as saying. They did not say where the meeting took place.