Washington

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The United States (US) Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday (May 12) that an all-out Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip's Rafah would provoke "anarchy" without eliminating Hamas. "Israel's on the trajectory, potentially, to inherit an insurgency with many armed Hamas left, or if it leaves, a vacuum filled by chaos, filled by anarchy and probably refilled by Hamas," Blinken told CBS News.

On being asked whether the US concurred with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement that Israeli forces had killed more civilians than Hamas militants since the war began, Blinken replied simply, "Yes, we do."

Speaking to another American media outlet, the US Secretary of State said on Sunday that Washington was continuing to press Israeli leaders to provide a plan for Gaza once the war is finally over. Blinken further said Hamas militants had already returned to certain areas of northern Gaza that Israel had "liberated."

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Fighting rages across Gaza

Blinken remarks came as fighting raged across the Gaza Strip on Sunday. The Israeli military sent tanks into eastern Jabalia in northern Gaza after a night of heavy aerial and ground bombardments, killing 19 people and wounding dozens of others, Palestinian health officials said.

Jabalia is the biggest of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps and is home to more than 100,000 people, most of whom were descendants of Palestinians who were driven from towns and villages in what is now Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that led to the creation the state of Israel.

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Addressing a press conference, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said, "We identified in the past weeks attempts by Hamas to rehabilitate its military capabilities in Jabalia. We are operating there to eliminate those attempts."

Thousands of families were leaving Rafah as the Israeli military pressure intensified. 

Meanwhile, the armed wing of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said their fighters attacked Israeli forces in several areas inside Gaza with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs, including in Rafah. 

Death toll in Gaza over 35,000

The war between Israel and Hamas began last year when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The Palestinian militant group took hundreds of people as hostages.

Israel estimates 128 captives remain in Gaza. It is presumed that 36 of these 128 captives are dead. 

Israel struck back hard in Gaza, killing thousands of Palestinians and displacing tens of thousands of more. On Sunday, the death toll in the war crossed 35,000, as per the Hamas-run health ministry.

(With inputs from agencies)