section_path: War in Israel and Gaza/Build-up to the Rafah offensive (February–April 2024)
section_name: Build-up to the Rafah offensive (February–April 2024)
paragraph_text: Build-up to the Rafah offensive (February–April 2024)
  
  Between February and May 2024, preparations to invade Rafah became a dominant theme in Israeli officials' public rhetoric. On 12 February, Israel started a bombing campaign on Rafah. Food supplies increasingly became an issue. On 5 February, Israeli gunboats shelled a clearly marked UNRWA convoy, forcing UNRWA to suspend its operations for almost three weeks, affecting 200,000 people. On 29 February, Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians waiting for food aid southwest of Gaza City, killing 100 and wounding 750. Some of the victims were run over by trucks as panic spread. Survivors described it as an intentional ambush by Israeli forces. On 1 March, the United States announced it would begin an operation to airdrop food aid into Gaza. Some experts called the initiative performative, saying it would not alleviate the food situation. During his State of the Union Address, Biden announced that a temporary port on Gaza's coast would be constructed to enable aid delivery.
  
  Al-Shifa Hospital, previously besieged in November 2023, was raided again between 18 March and 1 April. Israeli forces killed Faiq al-Mabhouh, who they said was head of the operations directorate of Hamas's internal security service. Hamas said al-Mabhouh was in charge of civil law enforcement and had been coordinating aid deliveries to north Gaza. The IDF said it killed 200 people in the hospital fighting, including senior Hamas leaders; this account was disputed. Survivors denied that militants had organized on the hospital grounds. Israeli forces were accused of reducing the hospital to a "blown out, fire-blackened" state, and of massacring 400 Palestinians.
  
  A 25 March UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza for Ramadan was ignored by the IDF. On 1 April, seven international aid workers from World Central Kitchen (WCK) were killed in an Israeli airstrike south of Deir al-Balah. WCK, who said their vehicles were clearly marked and their location known to Israel, subsequently withdrew from operating in Gaza alongside ANERA and Project HOPE. On 4 April, Israel opened the Erez Crossing for the first time since 7 October after US pressure.
  
  By 6 March, Israel had completed a new east–west road in Gaza. It was intended to mobilize troops and supplies, to connect and defend IDF positions on al-Rashid and Salah al-Din streets, and prevent people in the south of Gaza from returning to the north. On 7 April, Israel withdrew from the south Gaza Strip, with only one brigade remaining in the Netzarim Corridor in the north. Palestinians displaced from that city began to return from the south of the Gaza Strip. Israel planned to initiate its ground offensive in Rafah around mid-April, but postponed to consider its response to the Iranian strikes on Israel. On 25 April, Israel intensified strikes on Rafah ahead of its threatened invasion.